Illustrator Question

[CornerOfMyMind05]

Hey! I am creating a letterhead for a friends mom, and on it i have a vector of a tree that extends over the live area (due to the way that I have it cropped). When I go to save the file it encompasses what is outside the live area. I was wondering if there was a way to save it without going through and adjusting the entire vector. I apologize if this seems a bit random in my word choice..just trying to do too many things at one time haha. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, everyone here is always so polite and helpful!!

[patkennedy78]

I've run into this before as well, and I know it can be frustrating. But unfortunatly I don't know of a way other than cropping the vector image to your bleed area. Just SAVE AS, and name it XYZFILE_B. Use the sissors tool to cut off the excess and it shoudl be quick work. Hope that helped.

[hewligan]

1) Draw a box over the live area
2) Select the box and your tree graphic
3) Object -> Clipping Mask -> Make

Is that what you're looking for?

[patkennedy78]

hewligan, I don't think that when he saves the file it will crop to the artboard using a clipping mask. I think all your artwork has to be inside the artboard, which means adjusting the image to fit. But I'd love to hear a way to 'save to artboard bounds' or some such thing.

[Craig B]

When saving for Web (is that what you're talking about?) You can select teh "image size" tab to the right (after you have selected save for Web) and check the "clip to artboard" check box.

Or are you talking about exporting as a TIFF or another format? If so, you're probably better off simply opening your .eps or .ai in Photoshop and selecting "crop to media box" when opening it.

[PrintDriver]

Make a box. Put it over the tree. Select tree and box. Choose Pathfinder>crop. Ungroup. Select the part of the tree you want to keep. Lock it. Select all and delete the rest. The stupid pathfinder will leave both positive an negative shapes so clean up after yerself.

[hewligan]

Depends on what you save as.

An eps saves cropped to the artwork - though Illustrator, for example, gives you some more options than that when you place the file.

pdfs, on the other hand, crop to the artboard. So you don't get anything sitting on your pasteboard in a pdf.

[urstwile]

Hewligan's method worked for me.

[colorsplashstudio]

Yeah, I would suggest saving it as a PDF. If you are going to have a bunch printed, that would probably be best anyway. I have always wondered about how to do it saving as an EPS or AI though....

[urstwile]

Hewligan's original suggestion (post #3) worked fine for me, saved as both .ai and .eps.

[hewligan]

Hewligan's original suggestion (post #3) worked fine for me, saved as both .ai and .eps.

Yeah, it'll work. It's much the same as what PD suggested, only without using the pathfinder, which always seems to make my head hurt ;)

[urstwile]

Plus you have the option to reposition the masked graphic if you choose.

[PrintDriver]

Yup. And that's why we charge a setup fee on signage. :D

[urstwile]

So PD, are you saying the clipping mask doesn't work when you go to output files? :confused:

[Danger_Mouse]

Here's how I do it.

first
ON PATHFINDER pallete- select pathfinder options
make sure both boxes are checked (delete redundant points and Divide and outline ( I keep these checked as a rule everytime I restart Illy).

Then draw the box, select all and make a clipping mask. Then hit divide on the pathfinder pallette. Automatically deletes all the outside pieces. (it use to hurt my head alot too, but now I find real handy)

You also no longer have a mask when you do this and I would save as a copy to retain entire image for reuse.

[PrintDriver]

Depends on how they are output.
If you can see it in 'Artwork' mode, so can my plotters for vinyl and 3D.
Printed signs don't matter so much.

[CornerOfMyMind05]

Hewligan - that worked great! Now my only question is when I save it as a pdf. The tree is cropped to the live area, but there is a lot of negative space now that shows up in the pdf, not just the finished letterhead. Thanks again for everyone that is helping damn you guys respond quick haha! :)

[urstwile]

Okay, good to know, PD. :)

[hewligan]

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

There are so many ways I'm glad I don't have to worry about some of the stuff you do, PD. Just hearing about the disasters that can happen in your world with stuff I do every day, and works fine, scares the hell out of me.

[rickself]

Good tips, people.
Illy is such a strange beast, any shortcuts make it easier to cope with!

[Danger_Mouse]

heh heh so true.

I get excited when I find a new way to be more productive.

[Cyan_Ide]

When I'm saving an image at the specified document size, I use Object -> Crop Area -> Make. Is that really bad to use?

[rickself]

I really don't like that method. I doesn't carry the crops over to print.

Still draw your bounding box (size of the area) with no color for stroke or fill.
Use the Filter->Create->Crop Marks. And in the print options, give yourself a half inch bleed. Now when you save as an eps, the crops will go with it.

[PrintDriver]

I will have to admit to not knowing about the Illy option tip arrow. I'll get to go home earlier now. Well, at least one keystroke earlier. LOL. What an idiot I can be. Shoulda known.
Thanks.

And I'm very happy indeed not to have to deal with seps and plates and Publisher. ;)

[rickself]

Seps? Plates? Publisher? Anybody in particular?

[Danger_Mouse]

lol PD

Hey I live for saving one keystroke. Per day that might be 200-300 keystrokes saved for me.. lol.

I learn all kinds of tricks like that in Illy, then....I forget about them......then remember them......then forget them again. But that's one of them I use all the time and I get miffed when I have to relaunch Illy and forget to manually go in and click them again. They should just leave the things checked.

[urstwile]

Option tip arrow? Did I miss something?

[hewligan]

Option tip arrow? Did I miss something?

DM Mentioned the pathfinder options from the tip arrow on the pathfinder palette:

Here's how I do it.

first
ON PATHFINDER pallete- select pathfinder options
make sure both boxes are checked (delete redundant points and Divide and outline ( I keep these checked as a rule everytime I restart Illy).

Then draw the box, select all and make a clipping mask. Then hit divide on the pathfinder pallette. Automatically deletes all the outside pieces. (it use to hurt my head alot too, but now I find real handy)

You also no longer have a mask when you do this and I would save as a copy to retain entire image for reuse.

And I didn't know that one, either. I guess Danger Mouse really is amazing and fantastic. I wonder if, when there's danger, he'll be there?

[Danger_Mouse]

I guess Danger Mouse really is amazing and fantastic.

That's what she said.;)

[urstwile]

Ah, THAT tip arrow. Nope, I don't think I knew that one either. Good tip to know about, provided I remember it's there the next time I use pathfinder. :D

[hewligan]

I always forget about the tip arrows.

Sometimes I think Adobe just hide stuff there to make me look dumb on internet forums ;)

[Cyan_Ide]

I really don't like that method. I doesn't carry the crops over to print.

Thanks for the explanation. I have always sort of felt when I was using that method that it is sort of cheap, I just never knew why, so I figured I'd keep going with it until I ran into issues.

[PrintDriver]

Rick-
No one in particular...;)