[Adolf Witzeling]

I’ll be more than glad to help you with this. Please post a picture.
cheers, Adolf

[Adolf Witzeling]

one more thing to remember. Before flattening make sure colors used in your design must be converted to CMYK, don’t leave any spot colors or RGB based swatches in the file.
Then go to EFFECTS…DOCUMENT RASTER EFFECTS SETTINGS…and change it to high resolution (i.e. 300dpi)
Then you should have no problems to flatten the image. Then export from AI to pdf using PRESS QUALITY SETTING. Open the pdf, zoom in to 100% and turn PREVIEW..SHOW OVERPRINT on.
You should be able to see if the white line is still there.
If it’s still there then open the image that creates the white box, in PS, make sure it’s CMYK and use a clipping path, save as psd and bring it back into AI.
Give it a shot…it should work.
And yes, never send out unflattened images to the printer, because they just send the file to the RIP and that’s where the flattening problems occur, due to the variety of output devices. Some RIPs won’t have a problem to flatten correctly, but some do….but that’s a different story.
Cheers,
Addolf

[Adolf Witzeling]

I think it would look more “realistic” if you “sketch” the face of the lady (using the photo as a reference on a layer underneath) and lay it on top of the mermaid. Just sketch the eyes, nose and mouth and leave the skin tone white as in the mermaid clip art.

Open the mermaid image in PS. Make new layer on top and place the photo of the lady on this new layer. Make another layer above the lady…choose the brush or pencil tool and sort of trace the facial features of the photo. When you are happy with the face sketch simply delete or turn off the photo layer underneath.
Hope that helps.

One more thing: don’t be afraid of PS…it’s only a tool…yet a very powerful and fun one….the only way to learn is trial and error…mess around with it and watch your creativity taking off to new heights:=)

[Adolf Witzeling]

Both blending modes (multiply and screen) always take the pixel values of the layer underneath in consideration. So, i.e. when you set the top layer to multiply over the bottom layer, as in your example with the red car over yellow background, everything that is NOT solid red on your top layer will show through.
I am assuming you want the red car only to be red, so the easy way could be to set the car layer’s blending mode to normal and mask out the background via layer mask or simply erase the car’s background.
Hope that helps.

[Adolf Witzeling]

Which program do you use for font management?
What’s your operating system?
Maybe uninstalling (not just deleting) of Illustrator and then reinstalling could be worth a shot…

[Adolf Witzeling]

One more thing: when saving it as a pdf, in the pdf settings choose SMALLEST FILE SIZE. That will save it in 72ppi and will let you view the whole page on the screen (since monitors display at 72ppi). If you save in higher resolution, you won’t be able to view the whole page at once.
cheers,
Adolf

[Adolf Witzeling]

I’m glad you got it worked out. Yes my original post didn’t have the crucial steps because I put those in “tags” and when posted the contents of the tags got stripped off…my bad.
cheers

[Adolf Witzeling]

lets do it again.
1: convert font to outlines.
2: select everything and go to…object…compound path….RELEASE.
3: with everything selected…UNGROUP.

After that the transparent parts are selectable with the selection tool.
cheers

[Adolf Witzeling]

there are no dumb questions 🙂
Go to document setup….edit artboards….then the size of the artboard
will be visible and changeable in the menu above the document window (not the transformation palet).

To check the units of your document (pixels, inches etc.) go to preferences…units….you can change it to the unit you are used to work in.

To precisely place guides…pull in a ruler from the side or top, then go to view…guides and uncheck “lock guides”. Then you can select a guide and enter the exact dimensions in the menu above the window or in the transformation palet, so the guides will pop in place.
cheers

[Adolf Witzeling]

this link should point you in the right direction:

spyrestudios(dot)com/color-combination-tools/…don’t forget to replace the word with a real dot.

cheers