Adobe ILLUSTRATOR 10 Using Manual page 332

Adobe Illustrator Help
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Printing
About printing
Whether you are providing multicolored artwork to an outside service bureau or just
sending a quick draft of a drawing to an inkjet or laser printer, knowing a few basics about
printing will make the print job go more smoothly and help ensure that the finished
artwork appears as intended.
Types of printing When you print a file, the Adobe Illustrator program sends it to a
printing device, either to be printed directly onto paper, to a digital printing press, or to be
converted to a positive or negative image on film. In the latter case, the film can then be
used to create a master plate for printing by a mechanical press.
Types of images The simplest types of images, such as a page of text, use only one color
in one level of gray. A more complex image is one whose color tones vary within the
image. This type of image is known as a continuous-tone image. A scanned photograph is
an example of a continuous-tone image.
Halftoning To create the illusion of continuous tone when printed, images are broken
down into a series of dots. This process is called halftoning. Varying the sizes and densities
of the dots in a halftone screen creates the optical illusion of variations of gray or
continuous color in the image.
Color separation Artwork that will be commercially reproduced and that contains more
than a single color must be printed on separate master plates, one for each color. This
process is called color separation.
Getting detail The detail in a printed image results from a combination of resolution and
screen frequency. The higher an output device's resolution, the finer (higher) a screen
ruling you can use. (See
Transparency If the artwork contains transparency, it will be flattened according to
settings in the Document Setup dialog box. Using the Quality/Speed slider, you can affect
the ratio of rasterized versus vector images in the printed artwork. (See
saving transparent artwork" on page
Printing artwork and composites
You can choose from a set of standard printing options in Adobe Illustrator for any type of
artwork you print. These printing options appear in the Print Setup > Properties dialog box
(Windows) or Page Setup (Mac OS) dialog box. You can then print the artwork using the
Print dialog box.
If you are making color separations, you can print a color or grayscale composite proof to
check your work. A composite image can help you to design and proof your artwork
before printing final (and costly) separations. When Illustrator prints a composite, it prints
all of the colors used in the file on one plate.
Using Help | Contents |
Index
"Specifying the halftone screen ruling" on page
336.)
Index
Printing
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358.)
"Printing and
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