Setting DPI to 2450

[bjwagner]

How do I set the DPI in Abolbe Illustrator CS2 to 2450?

[Silence04]

wow, why would you need to do that?

[Craig B]

Illustrator (for the most part) is resolution independent (meaning resolution doesn't matter).

I'm curious, why do you want to set the DPI and why to such a high number?

[bjwagner]

My wife is a Professional Graphi Designer and a client of the company she works for has asked that the settings be 2450 DPI. I guess it's an unusual request since she's been a Graphic Designer for some time now and rarely needs to find help with any of the programs she uses. The Client ask that the DPI be 2450 and 133 line screen.

[Mynock]

If it's complete vector in Illy then they can convert it to whatever obsurd DPI they want, otherwise place it as a smart object in Photoshop once you have the document specifications correct.

[DesignVHL]

Sounds like the client doesn't know what they are doing....I would have your wife find out what the client's needs are FOR the vector graphic(print, web, large format?), and then advise them as needed - maybe even see if she can talk to their printer...thats what us pro designers need to do sometimes, educate our clients!

Illustrator by nature can print/resize w/out any quality loss. There IS a setting where you can setup the DPI - but its useless unless the artwork is using raster effects. You can find that in the top menu bar under EFFECTS (i think...don't have illy open, lol).

[doubting_thomas]

My wife is a Professional Graphi Designer and a client of the company she works for has asked that the settings be 2450 DPI. I guess it's an unusual request since she's been a Graphic Designer for some time now and rarely needs to find help with any of the programs she uses. The Client ask that the DPI be 2450 and 133 line screen.
That's the resolution setting for an image setter. Have who ever owns said
image setter provide her with Distiller Settings that she can use when she
performs a Save As to PDF from Illustrator. They may also have to provide
her with a PPD if they want her to Print To File then Distill to obtain the
result. Unless it's an older RIP/workflow she should just be able to provide
a device independent PDF file, then they can do whatever they need to.

It's a goofy request unless it's internal design to internal print, IMO.

[Craig B]

My guess is the client is sourcing it somewhere and doesn't know what he needs. If I were her I would try to get more clarification form the client as to where that is coming from because as long as it's all vector art created in Illustrator, the DPI can be anything like Mynock said.

Now, if you're using raster effects you can tell it what resolution to use for that, but even then I can't fathom anyone needing 2450 dpi.

And as far as lpi, that's something that the printer (not the machine, but the actual print vendor) sets when they print.

[bjwagner]

Sounds like the client doesn't know what they are doing....I would have your wife find out what the client's needs are FOR the vector graphic(print, web, large format?), and then advise them as needed - maybe even see if she can talk to their printer...thats what us pro designers need to do sometimes, educate our clients!

Illustrator by nature can print/resize w/out any quality loss. There IS a setting where you can setup the DPI - but its useless unless the artwork is using raster effects. You can find that in the top menu bar under EFFECTS (i think...don't have illy open, lol).

The client is a big book publisher and need that size for publishing the graphics in the book.

[jimking]

That's the resolution setting for an image setter. Have who ever owns said
image setter provide her with Distiller Settings that she can use when she
performs a Save As to PDF from Illustrator. They may also have to provide
her with a PPD if they want her to Print To File then Distill to obtain the
result. Unless it's an older RIP/workflow she should just be able to provide
a device independent PDF file, then they can do whatever they need to.

It's a goofy request unless it's internal design to internal print, IMO.
doubting_thomas nailed it. It's the settings for an imagesetter or CTP which is in possition of printers. Your wife just needs to pass the info to the printer perhaps.

[Craig B]

Well, as Doubting Thomas said, and upon looked around online (http://www.vikinginstantprint.com/useful-tips.php#3), apparently that's a standard output settings for commercial printing (offset). However the file itself does not need to be set up for that. Especially (once again) if it is all vector done in Illustrator.

Regardless of whether the client is a big book publisher, it's still erroneous information being provided by most likely a rep and not someone actually responsible for the printing.

[balou]

If they're asking for 133 line screen, wouldn't that equate to 266 dpi (which could round up to 300)?

I'm wondering if she has a book cover laid out in Illustrator with photo images?

[Drazan]

Illustrator by nature can print/resize w/out any quality loss.

Illustrator can only print/resize etc if and ONLY IF it is a vector format.

You have no idea how many AI files we get with an embeded raster image that's setup as a letterhead and we are supposed to upsize that for a wide format sign. :rolleyes:

[jimking]

If she has raster data in the illy file they should be 300 dpi but don't confuse that with the settings a printer uses to output film or plates. For example lets say I'm outputting 2 ads, both exactly the same, however, one is for a newspaper and one for highend offset printing. I'd most likely output the newspaper version a 1800 dpi- 85 or 110 lpi and the highend on at 2400 or 2540 dpi-and 150 to 200 lpi.

[bjwagner]

If they're asking for 133 line screen, wouldn't that equate to 266 dpi (which could round up to 300)?

I'm wondering if she has a book cover laid out in Illustrator with photo images?

No. She had to make the piece of Art. It's a vector File created in Illustrator.

[garricks]

I'm late to the party in this thread...as I read the OP I thought that 2540/133 was the old process separation for magazines...back when you had to send your color photos to a color separator... (man, I feel SO old!)

[PrintDriver]

Illustrator does have a way to set resolution. Not all features in Illy are vector. Drop Shadows, and glows are a good example of this. If these features are used as an Effect, you can change the resolution of them in Illy using the Raster Effects Resolution setting. If you did these features using Filter you are H-O-S-E-D. Filtered drop shadows cannot be increased in resolution. Placed images will be at the mercy of whatever the original scan resolution was divided by how large you made it or mulitiplied by how small you made it.
http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24372

We have to deal with this every day when working large because the default setting in illustrator is either Medium or Low (can't remember which). Many designers don't know to look. We also have to deal with the tears of a filtered drop shadow that pixelates in proof.

[urstwile]

If she has raster data in the illy file they should be 300 dpi but don't confuse that with the settings a printer uses to output film or plates. For example lets say I'm outputting 2 ads, both exactly the same, however, one is for a newspaper and one for highend offset printing. I'd most likely output the newspaper version a 1800 dpi- 85 or 110 lpi and the highend on at 2400 or 2540 dpi-and 150 to 200 lpi.
When I was still working with imagesetters, I remember that the Linotype imagesetter we had had to be set at a certain resolution in order to be able to produce a certain linescreen, basically what you said Jim.

And in much older versions of Illustrator, it used to be possible to set your flatness setting in the document setup and/or attributes window. I think they've done away with the need to do that anymore, but it did used to make a difference on the smoothness of curved edges if you made it the same as the imagesetter you were outputting to.

[Broacher]

My guess is that the work that she's doing is straight bw linework. Linework should (ideally) be handed off at the intended imagesetter's rez, if you're going to pre-raster it.

But then, why is she working in vector-dominant AI?