muli-page creation

[Richard Crosthwait]

Having difficulty with multi-page document creation within Illustrator. Tiling 8.5 x 11 pages results in larger paper formats (tabloid)when printing. Thus my PDF docs are useless for printing. Can't seem to find answers!

[BobHill]

Richard,

Since Illustrator will only do single page files, the only way to include multiple pages would be to either create a custom sized layout that would include all pages, then Page Tile them for printing. Or make each page into a single full layer and close off the Eye to all but the single "page" you wish to "see". If you wish to make a multi-page PDF of Illustrator files, you have to use full Acrobat Distiller or use a program that'll accept .ai/.eps files from Illustrator and will also make multi-page files and Distill them for PDF. Two such programs that'll do that are Adobe InDesign and Adobe PageMaker.

Bob

[Ian A. Wright]

Richard:

Or you could run out and purchase HotDoor's MultiPage Plug-in to create multiple pages within Adobe Illustrator 9 or 10. From www.hotdoor.com

[Richard Crosthwait]

Thanks to Bob and Ian for the valued info. I would have thought the solution more readily available...and not so difficult($$) to remedy! Is this Distiller a part of Acrobat? or an add-on? I have not heard of it except here-new to PDF format. Cheers!

[LenHewitt]

Richard,

The full Acrobat product consists of two parts, Acrobat Distiller, which
takes .ps or .eps files and converts them to .pdf format and what was called
Acrobat Exchange (now just Acrobat), where you can add/delete pages. crop
pages, add links, set security levels etc. etc.

The two ship together and are not obtainable independently.

--

Len
Posted from the UK

[John V]

Or you could try a inexpensive 3rd party tools like PDF-XChange

evaluation available -: http://www.docu-track.com/pdf-xchange.htm

Best

[Ian A. Wright]

Richard:

> Is this Distiller a part of Acrobat? <<

Yes. It's the actual RIP that makes the PDFs.

[Lee Hills]

The only way I have been able to generate multipage layouts
from AI 10 is to do the following:

Print Setup...

PaperSize Letter

Document Setup...

Artboard

Setup.Size Tabloid (or some multiple of the
Print Setup PaperSize)

Setup.UsePrintSetup unchecked

View.TileFullPages selected.

Then I would print to file and use Acrobat Distiller to create
the PDF file(s).

Only setback with printing to file using tiled pages is that
you end up with N print files, one per page. You can either concat
the files together and distill it or distill them individually
and join them together in Acrobat. It is a good idea to use ASCII
format print files if you are pulling the files together in a
text editor.

One other note about tiled page printing: I and several other
people have reported that collation and duplexing do not work
on printers because AI 10 generates separate print files/jobs
for each page. Printers need a single multi-page job/file to actually
make collation and duplexing work properly. To get around this
problem you will need to generate the PDF and then print from
Acrobat.

Hope this helps,

Lee

[Richard Crosthwait]

My dilemma thus far:

Have set up Illustrator to tile pages for printing (2x 8.5x11) using page tool. This prints out my two pages. To send an electronic copy I need to create a PDF file. Have obtained a copy of Acrobat 4.5 and configuring the Distiller Job Options-Advanced...have preserved EPS info from DSC and after converting new EPS file from Illustrator I now have a single page doc 8.5x11 as opposed to the 8.5x16 I was always getting. Now how do I get my other page and I'm not sure I understand how to stich them together for my final 2 page doc?

[LenHewitt]

Richard,

IL10 outputs a file per (tiled) page, so you will need to distil both
PostScript files to individual PDF's and then use Acrobat Exchange to import
the 2nd page into the PDF.

[Richard Crosthwait]

Len;

How do you choose which tiled page to be output. They automatically are numbered for printing order but to convert a specific page?

[Ben Salisbury]

The best way I've found, to make multi-page pdf's. Is to print to file, creating as many .ps files as you have pages.

Find the Distillr/Xtras folder and read rundirex.txt this will provide you with the steps for creating multipage PDF's using distiller.

-Ben

[Richard Crosthwait]

Ben;

OK, now I'm a PS programmer! The print to file out of AI created preview files, I saved as EPS files. Now this Rundirex, where and how do create PS programs for Distiller to execute? I'm assuming this will distill all pages into single PDF correct?

Richard

[Ben Salisbury]

Deep down, we're all programmers at heart :)

OK...

I'm going to take you through the exact steps I go through for this to work...For the first time, follow my directions, and then after that modify them for how you need.

1) Mount an Apple Color LW 12/660 PS printer(this is my favorite---and you don't actually need the printer to mount the drivers)

2) Create a folder on the root c: called TESTPS.

3) Open the rundirex.txt file and change the line "/PathName (Macintosh HD:Test:*.ps) def" to "/PathName (c:/testps/*.ps) def" without the quotes.
save the file as mine.txt in the TESTPS directory.

4) Open your Illustrator file and set up the page tiling.

5) Print to file using the new APPLE printer you just mounted, it will ask you to select a location and to name each page. The location is TESTPS and name the first one 1.ps, and the second one 2.ps and so on.

6) When this is complete run distiller, and drag the mine.txt file to the distiller window, it will ask you what you want the PDF file named and where you want it saved...and let it fly.
you might have to play with the page formating options in the apple driver and distiller to get it to come out perfect i.e. landscape vs horiz.

-Ben

[Richard Crosthwait]

Ben;

Sorry for delay. Thanks for step by step, however, print to file resulted in a single query for nameing new file and no location option. Manually moved this to TESTPS folder and ran Distiller by dragging file over icon and again no queries just distilled and produced 1.PDF file out of 1.PS file with log showing two pages distilled! Wow finally arrived here after 10 days! Again much thanks.

Richard

[leashannon]

I have had the same problem with Illus 10. I want to create multiple page pdf and print duplex. I had no problem in illus 9...as a matter of fact I have saved these docs as a 9 file but i still can't print duplex or make a 2 page pdf.

If I create them in 9 I can do both of these....will their be a fix for this??
Thanks...LeaShannon

[leashannon]

What I am doing now is copying my files that I made in Illus 10 to new files in Illus 9. I can now print duplex and make multiple page pdfs. LsaShannon

[Ian A. Wright]

Lsa:

> ... will their be a fix for this?? <<

You may be unaware that this is a User-to User forum where sometimes Adobe staff drop by but you're better off phoning or writing or leaving an e-mail at the Adobe web site to talk to the company: http://www.adobe.com/misc/comments.html <http://www.adobe.com/misc/comments.html> You might want to take advantage of this location to give your personal ideas of present functions as well as recommendations for the next version: http://www.adobe.com/support/feature.html <http://www.adobe.com/support/feature.html>