how to increase gradient steps in AI?

[Kelly Brownlee]

Hi,

I need to be able to increase my gradient steps in AICS. how do i do this? Right now my production person says it's only at an 8. How do I find this info and change it?

thanks!

[PrintDriver]

Exactly how are you creating this gradient?
With a gradient fill or the blend tool?

Either way, Illustrator grades always band. We usually create em in Photoshop at the correct resolution for the size we are printing and place em back in Illustrator.

PrintDriver is a large format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Kelly Brownlee]

Hmmm...gradient fill...

[PrintDriver]

did you expand the gradient fill at any point in your design operations? It might have happened if you had to expand the object containing the fill. If you did you may have inadvertantly separted the steps. Usually a window pops up when you do it though asking you how many steps you want it to be. But 256 is the default, not 8.

Did your production person tell you what 8 meant? This is a new one on me. But so is CS.

PrintDriver is a large format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Kelly Brownlee]

Actually, yes, I did expand some of the images...

Maybe that's why...still though, i have no idea how to expand the steps... UGH...

And the production guy I am paying $250 to do this isn't helping me either. He just says ' Go look it up on Adobe...'


thanks though! /emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[Pagan]

It sounds like your production guy might be talking about 12 bit smoothing for your gradients steps, that's a Postscript 3 thing.

http://marianpress.sk.ca/darkoak/darkoak%20graphics/ILIUM%20LOGO.jpg

[PrintDriver]

Got it.
Select your gradient object.
Go to
Object>blend>blend options
If it says, 'specified steps' =8 change the tip arrow to 'smooth color'

PrintDriver is a large format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[PrintDriver]

Oh, and if that IS the problem AND you sent him an .ai file and not a pdf, I might ask what exactly you are paying this production guy $250 for. Cuz if you are paying him JUST to do file prep, he shoulda fixed that happily and gave you a printable file. Even if he is talking about Postscript 3 issues, that is his problem. Even my large format print vendors don't charge that much for file prep if I forward them a client file in a program I don't have. That's over 2 hours worth of production desktop time...

I still say if the gradient is over 8 INCHES long, it will still band when printed.

PrintDriver is a large format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[Kelly Brownlee]

thank you soooo much!!!!