Exporting JPGs from Illustrator

Wonder Woman · 02-08-2005, 01:52 PM

Whenever I export a JPG from Illustrator and save it as CMYK (which is usual) I find anyone who doesn't have Illustrator on their computers can't open the file.So if I'mexportingan imageto email to someone to print, I have to save it in RGB format.

Has anyone else encountered this problem and is there a way around it?

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Broacher · 02-08-2005, 03:25 PM

I think EVERYONE has run into this. CMYK JPGs are not readable by most non-print-publishing software viewers (which are the majority). It's easy enough to check 'RGB' when exporting to a JPG from AI to solve this. Or, why not just save as a PDF? That way you still get the compression advantage of JPG but the option of colour managment for the display of the image (which is NOT so with just a JPG).

Wonder Woman · 02-08-2005, 04:27 PM

Thanks Broacher. Due to the general uselessness of my company, it's the JPG route for me I think. PDF would mean that some people would have to learn how to use a computer. Besides, you can't import PDF into PowerPoint, to send back to me for printing.

Thanks again

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Broacher · 02-08-2005, 06:18 PM

No, but it's a handy thing to remember that you can save PDF pages as JPGs or TIFFs out of Acrobat if you need to. Or even 'open' jpgs (CMYK or RGB) directly into Acrobat and save them as easily viewable PDFs.

But I don't get it: what's the work/proofing flow here? You are preparing CMYK JPGs to send for ... ??? And what's the connection with PPoint? Are you saying that other users want to use your image work to place in MS Applications? Then what's the big problem with just saving to RGB JPG? (BTW, do you have Photoshop?)

Wonder Woman · 02-09-2005, 01:08 AM

Oh yeah, I'll keep that in mind Broacher.

My usual work/proofing flow goes as follows:

Client walks into my office 'can you please scan this for me?'

Me: 'Sure, no problem.' So I scan away and save as JPG for them

Client: 'Great'

So ten minutes later I get a phonecall saying they can't open it. 'I don't know what a JPG is'

So I have now taken to putting them into a PowerPoint document (I know, I know, but you really should meet some of the people I work with) so they can at least open it. Then I'll get an email the next day with a PowerPoint documents attached with some luminous yellow text over the top of the image and 'Can you run off 5 copies of this for me please?'

That's the usual routine in this place. But when I ask 'Can I do anything else for you?' to go after the scan, I get a 'No, no, I can do it myself thanks - I do know what I'm doing'

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Broacher · 02-09-2005, 01:38 AM

Ah... no default JPG viewer then.

You might try telling them to try opening it (File/open) with their web browser.

I know what you mean though. For certain people it's just easier to wrap everything in a MS Word doc and tell them to cut and paste rather then to try and walk them through the 'complex' operation of inserting an image file.

Wonder Woman · 02-09-2005, 01:55 AM

Yeah, for the first 6 months I was really enthusiastic and tried to teach everyone basic IT, like opening JPGs and differences in file formats. But then I realised that everyone I taught this exciting information to got posted to another station (I work with the military) and some other complete pancaker took their place, so it's a Catch 22 situation. It does make me shudder though, and I regularly pray to the GD Gods for forgiveness.

I also tried teaching people that Comic Sans really wasn't appropriate for an offical military document, but that ended in a similar style.

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