[Mike Gondek]

You seem to have a good grasp of troubleshooting the situation so I can only offer you some additioanl suggestions

Reset your ai prefs; boot ilustrator and immediately hold down (Shift Ctrl alt )
Test that your 4gb or ram are working
Update your video drivers

Are you saying live trace is working just not on 300 dpi images. Try some other image as you may find it works better with RGB or a differetn file format, adn defintely lower res to find what the parameters are that you live traces are failing at.

[Mike Gondek]

You could use File >> Scripts >> Export Layer Groups to files. Only problem is png is not one of the option. You could write an action with save as, to save them to .pngs.

[Mike Gondek]

Check out this link
https://indesignsecrets.com/eliminating-the-white-box-effect.php

You can also try using the print command and choose the PDF driver. I get much smaller PDFs for emailing that way, than using InDesign to make PDFs.

Are tyou on mac or PC, as there are a couple of settings you chaneg for example by right clicking on the PDF Print Driver choose ing properties/general tab/printing preferences

[Mike Gondek]

Select All
From the layers palette flyout menu choose >> release to layers sequence

You likely will have to then select all the layers it creates and move them out of the original contaianing layer (watch for the black lien in the layers palette

[Mike Gondek]

This is usually done in Acrobat Pro, but you can also do some PDF navigation to documents created with InDesign.

Select the button tool, and draw a button, then use
Window >> Interactive >> Bookmarks
to set the states

You can also create buttons from your own placed images
Interactive >> convert to button

If you really want to get into more interactive PDF documents Acrobat is the way to go with javascripts.

[Mike Gondek]

You must be on a mac since KPT vector Effects is not working in CS2. Too bad it only works on the pc.

I don’t have one of the new intel macs, wonder if KPT_VE works on that????

[Mike Gondek]

Select both the rectangle and your text, then apply the envelope distortion to both of them.

You can later edit the text by:
Object >> envelop distort <>> edit contents

The advantage to the rectangle (with a fill and stroke of none) included in your artwork, is if the size of your text changes, than the distortion will follow the same curvature if you change the font to another typeface, size, capitalize, etc. The rectangle acts a a bounding box.

[Mike Gondek]

Which distortion filter are you using?

I personally like to use envelopes and have found a trick that works incase you edit text, or in your case rotate. I just create a rectangle larger than the artwork, and then I apply OBJECT >> ENVELOPE DISTORT >> (CHOOSE YOUR WARP SETTINGS). Later I can slect just the text with the direct select tool and make change to the text, btu the distortion remains the same shap so I dont have to creat it again. You also have numeric settings with envelope, so you can do things like interlocking puzzle pieces distortion by flopping the numbers on your subsequent items.

[Mike Gondek]

For how much ink&paper costs, and the trouble with jams, you can get this printed online at an excellent deal. They even have minimum runs as low as 100

https://www.overnightprints.com/
https://www.vistaprint.com

Your postcards will look much better varnished with ink going to the edges and professionally cut (rather than crack n peel).

[Mike Gondek]

Thanks Don for the reply. I think the link you submitted about bestpricecameras is true as I waited on hold to talk to them, they are very agressive in getting you to buy extras. They said the camera is out of stock and make no promise as to when it will arrive at that price.

Anyone have any feedback on the big difference in lux and pixels between the 2 cameras I mentioned.