from illustrator to quark quality issues

[v3zoR]

hi, i've lately been confronting with an issue when it comes to printing things done in illustrator.
It's about a cover for a magazine. So yeah i've done it all in illustrator, some text here, some jpg's there, and it was done, and i was happy that my work was over. When actually...i have to import it in quark for printing. So of course i save everything in an .eps format, get into quark and when i'm importing the image everything looks extremely bad, like some sort of pattern is applied on top of the illustration. I've been messing with all the .eps saving settings but eitherway in the end, in quark it looks almost horrible.
Also, i've tried saving most elements of the cover in .eps and just imported them one at a time in quark, the effect is the same.

Although i've printed it at home on a b&w printer only, the results are really unsatisfying. So my question is, is there something i can do to boost the image quality in quark, or is it all going to be fixed in the printer settings?
this is the first time i've actually try to create a magazine cover in illustrator and quark, i should also mention that

 

[jerryrock]

It is difficult to tell what is going on without knowing the versions of the programs you are using.

Quark versions 7.2 and above can flatten transparencies from imported documents. It may be that Quark just can not preview the imported EPS file in high resolution. I does support full resolution preview for Illustrator native PDF.

Another option would be to save the Illustrator file as PDF/x-1a for import to Quark. Or create the magazine cover in Quark importing only the Illustrator artwork for maximum compatibility.

Using PSD or TIFF files for your images is preferred over jpeg which is already compressed and may cause artifacts if not saved at a high enough resolution.

 

[decksnap]

Quark's on-screen preview of placed files is fairly crude sometimes. It doesn't affect how it prints though. I am more concerned about what you mentioned with having jpegs in an illustrator file, then placing that in a Quark doc.

I would place your images straight into quark, saving them as cmyk .tifs first. All your vector art from Illustrator can be placed in as an .eps.

 

[v3zoR]

thank you for your help i was really confused about what was i supposed to do, once i saved it as an .eps and didnt work
i have illustrator cs2 and quark 7.31.
i saved the file in illustrator as a pdf/x-1a2003 and when i imported it into quark it looked watcheable. I havent spent so much time in quark so it was appreciated

 

[JasonElise1983]

i'm not as conscerned about bringing jpgs into Illustrator as i am about brining an EPS into quark to print? I mean, if it's a cover Illustrator exports really nice PDFs that you can combine in Acrobat Pro with the other pages if you needed to.

but, just out of curiosity why did you build it in illustrator anyway, if Quark was your final format you needed? Why not just build it in Quark? Sorry, whatever works for you, but this is some crazy workflow.

-JE

 

[v3zoR]

well i only found out recently that they - the printing company - will print it in quark, they told me that pretty much everything they print is in quark so i said i'll be having a quark format for them.
And besides i'm more accustomed to working in illustrator it has those 3d effects, the masking opportunity, which if these are present in quark, i have no idea on how to create those effects. I'm very new to quark and new to printing, that's why i made those rookie mistakes, bringing jpegs into illustrator etc, i've read and talked to some people who gave me advices and i went with them. I hope it works though, the job is due in may, thanks for the help again

 

[mfenn]

Some things to consider

When placing EPS files (particularly vector art EPS) into Quark, a low res proxy preview is generated by Quark. That proxy preview is usually patterned (almost like an embroidered image). Ignore what the preview looks like, its only that, a preview. There's nothing inherently wrong with placing an Illustrator EPS into Quark, and if a printer tells you thats how they do it, then you go with it. The problem here, I believe is the source material for the Illustrator file itself.

You mentioned using JPEGs in your cover art. That immediately puts up a red flag for me: Low Res bitmaps. All bitmap graphics going to print on an offset printing press should be 300 dpi @ 100% of size used in the layout. You can get away with scaling them up a little but its best to avoid it. All bitmaps should also be CMYK. JPEGs typically are RGB so there's a second red flag. The Illustrator file itself also needs to be set up properly. It should be CMYK Color Mode and Raster Effects should be set to 300 dpi. Any colors used should be spec'd in CMYK values (not RGB).

I tend to always work with a native .ai file as my working file and then when the art is ready to be placed into Quark (or preferrably InDesign) I convert all text to outlines and save the file as .eps format. I have attached sample New Document settings and Save EPS Options for reference. Since you have images placed into Illustrator, check the box for Include Linked Files in the EPS.

Hope this helps.

 

[AlexisV]

Click on a graphic and go to Item>Preview Resolution>Full Resolution to see a better version (although the colours won't be accurate).

The page won't print off correctly if you are using a home printer which isn't postscript. Export to PDF and print from Adobe Reader to make it work.

In fact, I don't know why your printing company won't take a high res PDF file. Any decent one will.
Export it with 3mm bleed around the outside, at 300dpi and tick marks offset by 6mm (all in the PDF settings).