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Illustrator Help-Artboard Size?

aricher

aricher

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
2,211
1
Chi-il
Hello all,

I'm working on enlarging a logo for a backlit sign and am having problems enlarging the size of the artboard within Adobe Illustrator CS. I need the sign to be roughly 30 feet (360 inches) wide but in Illustrator I can only get the Artboard setup to go as high as 227.5416 inches. I looked through Illustrator's help but could only come up with this:

"The largest custom page size you can specify depends on the maximum imageable area of your imagesetter. Consult the documentation on your specific printer for more information."

Without knowing the type of imagesetter (the production plant is in China) is there a way for me to "trick" Illustrator into letting me enlarge the Artboard to 360" from the 227.5416" maximum? I've tried just about everything. I thought that "Print Preset: Custom; Printer: Adobe PostScript File; PPD: Device Independent" would work but it does not. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help in advance.
 
A

allroy

macrumors member
Mar 10, 2004
61
0
shouldn't have to worry about it.

illustrator is vector based so doesn't really matter what size you send as long as the final output size is specified.
 
aricher

aricher

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
2,211
1
Chi-il
allroy said:
illustrator is vector based so doesn't really matter what size you send as long as the final output size is specified.
Click to expand...
I realize that but the production company specifically stated that the artwork must be sized at 100% or be subject to a revision fee - they will not resize it for me w/o charging. Also, being a Chinese production company I am afraid that sizing would be screwed up if I left it up to them - not to mention the extra fee to have them manipulate the file.

It's driving me nuts - HOW do I change the artboard size?
 
Peyote

Peyote

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2002
760
1
My guess is that for your application, it doesn't matter wha tthe size of the artboard is. Unless you're printing from Illustrator, any EPS file that you create will be as large as the graphics within it.

However, if you really must go beyond 227" in the artboard, I don't know how you would get around it.


But you may be able to just make the logo as big as you want, and provide them with an EPS, and not worry about the artboard. I know you can make an object larger then Illustrator's working space.

I don't see why they are requiring you to scale the logo yourself anyway. They're going to have to set up the file for output anyway...why not just have you give them the vector logo and they can scale it in whatever program they use? A fee for changing the scale is rediculous.

I guess you could ask them what program they would use to increase the scale, then see if you could borrow that program from someone, increase the scale, save it, then delete the program.
 
B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
Peyote said:
My guess is that for your application, it doesn't matter wha tthe size of the artboard is. Unless you're printing from Illustrator, any EPS file that you create will be as large as the graphics within it.
Click to expand...

Good guess -- this is correct.
 
D

da_alchemist

macrumors member
Sep 11, 2003
43
0
30 feet is huge. I think the printers normally take care of enlarging the illustration.

I didn't worry about sizing my art to 100% when I had to create a billboard sign.
 
aricher

aricher

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 20, 2004
2,211
1
Chi-il
OK - never mind everyone. I just got off the phone with someone who spoke better English than my contact. They said that they would take care of resizing the .ai or .eps file for me at no charge. In addition to this they will be forwarding a photograph of the building with the proposed sign super-imposed on it for scale perspective.

Thanks for everyone's help. The artboard resize thing is still driving me nuts but alas - one more project down. FYI - the final size will be 32" high (2.66 ft) x 326.13" wide (27.18) I hope the sign comes out well - I'd hate to have a massive screw-up on the side of a building.
 
A

allanpallan

macrumors newbie
Jan 6, 2009
2
0
Actually it does matter

I fight with same issue here. Trouble is that when I try to save my artwork to pdf then it saves only artboard area. I actually created one more area there and Id like to save it as well.
So what is my suggestion. Create new document. Apply your required artboard size and use copy / paste.

My problem is that I do not remember actual artboard size.
 
C

cnngraphics

macrumors newbie
Mar 28, 2013
1
0
Why not work in 10th scale?

I am a graphic artist designing a lot of large format banners and vehicle wraps. Working in full scale is a "non-sense" because there is no production issue with using vectors from a 10th scale design.

In addition, working in full scale puts a major toll on your computer's performance and memory usage.

So I work in 10th scale, and when production time comes, I open the .AI or .EPS file (Right Click => Open With) Photoshop, then Photoshop ask to specify the scale, then I put 100% or the actual size of the print file (in inches or feet etc...)

It's both a time and resource saver.

I will post a video tutorial on my website (http://www.cnngraphics.com) to show my process and hopefully help some folks
 
Designer Dale

Designer Dale

macrumors 68040
Mar 25, 2009
3,950
100
Folding space
cnngraphics said:
I am a graphic artist designing a lot of large format banners and vehicle wraps. Working in full scale is a "non-sense" because there is no production issue with using vectors from a 10th scale design.

In addition, working in full scale puts a major toll on your computer's performance and memory usage.

So I work in 10th scale, and when production time comes, I open the .AI or .EPS file (Right Click => Open With) Photoshop, then Photoshop ask to specify the scale, then I put 100% or the actual size of the print file (in inches or feet etc...)

It's both a time and resource saver.

I will post a video tutorial on my website (http://www.cnngraphics.com) to show my process and hopefully help some folks
Click to expand...

Please check dates when replying to threads. This issue was resolved in 2005.

Dale
 
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