Need Help! Quick! PLEASE

jennifer ss johnson

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 4:24:29 AM7/9/02

to

Hi,

I have an ai image and when I export it to EMF format, all the curves appear jagged (it prints OK on my printer, but looks VERY jagged onscreen)...what am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Jenny

Andrew Gray

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 4:46:24 AM7/9/02

to

What are you viewing the EMF in? it might be that there is no Anti Alias in the display so there is no 'smoothing'.

-Andy

BobHill

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 9:00:12 AM7/9/02

to

EMF is a vector format and thus doesn't use anti-aliasing, but it's also not a great vector format for Illustrator to convert to, especially if the objects are complex. Why do you have to use either EMF or WMF? Those are probably the two weakest filters in Illustrator's cadre of formats.

Bob

BobHill

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 9:49:39 AM7/9/02

to

Guy,

Then the question is for the program the EMF is being put into, isn't it. Illustrator's EMF/WMF is still less than stalwart, however, in many cases. If possible it's recommended that even a raster TIFF might accomplish a better image than EMF/WMF in many cases.

Bob

Guy Smiley

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 9:44:30 AM7/9/02

to

"EMF is a vector format and thus doesn't use anti-aliasing"

True, but Andrew's point still stands--perhaps the program Jenny is using to display the EMF is set to not anti-alias when rendering to the screen.
-Mike Nitabach

Guy Smiley

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 11:54:00 AM7/9/02

to

"Then the question is for the program the EMF is being put into, isn't it."

Yep.

"Illustrator's EMF/WMF is still less than stalwart, however, in many cases."

I don't even know what those file types are.

"If possible it's recommended that even a raster TIFF might accomplish a better image than EMF/WMF in many cases."

When I'm having trouble placing or importing a vector file into some other program--which I always do with Microsoft Office applications--I use Illustrator's or Photoshop's excellent rasterization capabilities to generate TIFFs. This always works great and, if you pay attention to the ultimate rendering resolution and apply anti-aliasing, yields results that are visually indistinguishable from the original vector drawing.

In fact, I think the rasterizing engine in Photoshop and Illustrator does a better job of anti-aliasing fonts and vector art than most other applications, especially Microsoft Office. I give a lot of presentations at seminars that require the use of PowerPoint. I generate my slides in Illustrator and InDesign, create PDFs, rasterize the PDFs with anti-aliasing using either Illustrator or Photoshop, and import the resulting TIFFs into PowerPoint. I get smoother fonts and vector art than people who create slides directly in PowerPoint.
-Mike Nitabach

BobHill

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 1:41:25 PM7/9/02

to

WMF (Windows MetaFile) and EMF (Enhanced MetaFile). They are primarily used in MS Office documents especially for printing to non postscript printers which won't print EPS files. WORD and Office documents does have EPS filter, but viewing and printing to PCL printers won't work for it, of course. Sizing the image prior to Export as a TIFF in Illustrator will view like the vector .ai/.eps if background is made transparent using WORD's Draw ability to do that. .ai and .pdf won't insert into WORD/OFFICE documents. Although you can make a PDF from WORD, you can't insert it back into it's documents.

Bob

jennifer ss johnson

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 8:42:34 PM7/9/02

to

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the advice.

Actually, what the deal is, is I created a logo for a client in Illustrator (I'm brand new to Illustrator [obviously:-)]) and I am trying to provide them with as many formats as possible.

I just gave up on the EMF, and went with AI, EPS, TIF, GIF, PNG, and grayscale BMP. Hopefully, that will cover all the bases.

I think what the problem was originally, though, was that the viewer wasn't set to anti-alias. So, one of you guys nailed it.

I'm having a heck of a time saving any files as anything other than AI/EPS, though. Everytime I export, I get wild color shifts (I'm using CMYK/Pantone swatches).

I just ended up having to copy the vector and paste it into PSP to save the raster images in order to eliminate the color changes.

Thanks again for all the help; I know newbie questions are a pain.

Jenny

Adam Lane

unread,

Jul 9, 2002, 11:34:23 PM7/9/02

to

You could also give the PDF file format a try. EPS is a good choice too.

Andrew Gray

unread,

Jul 10, 2002, 4:16:32 AM7/10/02

to

Mr Smiley!!
Maaaaaaate!
How big do your P/point shows get!!
I guess your not transporting them on a 1.4 Meg floppy.... ;-)

-Andy

Guy Smiley

unread,

Jul 10, 2002, 8:05:11 AM7/10/02

to

Andy:

They are not too large for 30 slide presentations. I rasterize 11x8.5 inch images at 150dpi, which is more than sufficient for screen or video projector display, and use LZW compression. My most recent presentation was 23 slides, with text, vector, and raster. I created it in InDesign, and the distilled PDF (raster image compression to 150 dpi) was about 3 MB. After rasterization into TIFFs and importation in to PowerPoint, the presentation was about 30 MB. I burned it onto a CD.

One of the other advantages of this approach is that my presentation is *completely* self-contained, and doesn't depend on the existence of any particular fonts on the machine being used to display it.

-Mike Nitabach

Andrew Gray

unread,

Jul 10, 2002, 8:50:53 AM7/10/02

to

Totally agree on your reasons there - have done this in the past myself...perhaps not to such a degree though.

Only problems I get are a bunch of people wanting to edit stuff on the fly (like *at* the venue!) and they (the nameless, faceless corporate masses - who, BTW, I work for <g>) like their animations too....

I'd like a illustrator-friendly presentation program me thinks. Sometimes I wonder about MM Flash...

-Andy