Illustrator Files: Legacy 8?

mseydel

mseydel

truculent
howdy. I work in pre-press, and my shop handles quite a few Illustrator EPS files from clients...one of the remote Sites of my company actually does the page processing, while we handle all the image manipulation. Lately there's been a push to have one of our clients save out their Illustrator files as Legacy Illustrator 8 EPSs. As far as I know, the reason behind this is to make sure that all colors are CMYK and print-ready...Illustrator 9 thru CS can be dangerous in their ability to prepare spot colors in documents. However, since the files are coming from varied sources, some are concerned that a Legacy 8 version of a Illustrator EPS may hamper some of a file's transparency or other effects that were created in a more recent version of Illustrator. Any Illustrator experts care to enlighten me as to the pros and cons of this as they see it?
 
Hey there! I am actually dealing with this same situation with regard to a printer in China. They seem to be requesting Illustrator EPS files. However, these files are problematic because in the save dialog you see that images are saved as "72 dpi" and I don't know how to change this.

One thing you could do, and this was my solution, is to take the Illustrator file into InDesign and create a flattened eps file from that. Might eliminate any hassles and you can preflight the document for Spot colors.

You can also use a great app for Illustrator called "Art Files" that will collect and preflight your Illustrator files so you can deal with any color issues.

When saving back to Illustrator 8, any transparencies or effects are usually translated (flattened) and visible, they are just uneditable as transparency. The effects become objects.

I am glad you brought this up and would love to hear your continued thoughts! :)
 
...but since I'm just using the Legacy 8 files for final output via Quark, I'm not really worried about editing any of the areas with tranparency effects later on in the process. It may sound backwards, but I actually want the file to be as 'stripped-down' as possible, without sacrificing any of the visible content. My remote site handling the page processing isn't going to have to edit the Illustrator files at all...this onus is to be taken by DTP on the client end. What we're talking about is a mixed bag of mostly product logos, which are tied into corporate identities and copyright issues...I really don't want people having to muck with these files when they're RIPping the page...

As for the 72 dpi problem...I think you're referring to the little exclamation point at the bottom of the dialog box when you try to export a file as Legacy 8 EPS that says:

! the Document Raster effects resolution is 72ppi or less.

This shouldn't affect the vector elements, which should be everything in your file, right?
 
I think my point was too buried in my post. I meant to say that when you save back to legacy you don't have to worry so much about transparencies. They get fully converted when you save back.
 
You can also test your file by ripping it to a pdf file. That will really show you how your illustrator file will print. :)
 
thanks, Nato!

I'm just trying to educate myself a bit more about the pros and cons of saving back to Legacy 8...since the client is closer to me than those processing the pages, I think I may get caught in the middle. I'd like to have info, as well as a plan, when and if that happens. I'm a raster-edit guy by nature, so this has me on unsteady ground...

the client will still have the 'master' files of these logos for edits, I'm just
trying to get a file for output that will require the least amount of intervention, re-saving, or pre-flighting.

It sounds like you agree that the Legacy 8 option is a viable plan.
 
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