Anyone using Illus CS4?

[Thomas Mauer]

Originally Posted by JimCampbell

Yeah. I know. For a grand, I was stupidly expecting more than three disks. For a grand, I was expecting a pretty girl to deliver it by hand and give me a free lap dance, quite frankly!

Cheers

Jim

Hah! Well, even computer game manufacturers are increasingly just providing PDF handbooks, so don't feel too bad about it.

Also, keep an eye on http://www.lynda.com for tutorials. They're better than the manuals could ever be anyway.

[JimCampbell]

Illustrator CS5 update:

Fortunately, I only installed this on my laptop first, to give it a couple of spins round the block before putting it on the desktop machine.

Here's a little wrinkle Adobe have thrown in…

One of my clients wants live .ai files from me, so I need to be able to save back to CS3. No problem -- CS5 offers that option and the files do, indeed, open in CS3.

Except that the crop area has been deleted.

Some of the books I do for this client are close to 150 pages… I'm sure you can imagine the reception I'd get if I said "Oh, I've finished the lettering, but you'll need to recreate the crop areas on 150 pages."

So that's a deal-breaker for me until I can find the time to investigate properly and figure out if there's a workaround.

Thanks a bunch, Adobe!

Cheers

Jim

[Thomas Mauer]

Originally Posted by JimCampbell

Illustrator CS5 update:

Fortunately, I only installed this on my laptop first, to give it a couple of spins round the block before putting it on the desktop machine.

Here's a little wrinkle Adobe have thrown in…

One of my clients wants live .ai files from me, so I need to be able to save back to CS3. No problem -- CS5 offers that option and the files do, indeed, open in CS3.

Except that the crop area has been deleted.

Some of the books I do for this client are close to 150 pages… I'm sure you can imagine the reception I'd get if I said "Oh, I've finished the lettering, but you'll need to recreate the crop areas on 150 pages."

So that's a deal-breaker for me until I can find the time to investigate properly and figure out if there's a workaround.

Thanks a bunch, Adobe!

Cheers

Jim

A simple workaround solution is to add a no-stroke/no-fill box that lines up with your crop area. The way it had to be done in the CS3 days to get it to work at all.

[JimCampbell]

Originally Posted by Thomas Mauer

A simple workaround solution is to add a no-stroke/no-fill box that lines up with your crop area. The way it had to be done in the CS3 days to get it to work at all.

Yeah… but I've yet to find a feature in CS5 that makes it worth the inconvenience. I may just stick with CS3 at this stage.

Cheers!

Jim

[Thomas Mauer]

Originally Posted by JimCampbell

Yeah… but I've yet to find a feature in CS5 that makes it worth the inconvenience. I may just stick with CS3 at this stage.

Cheers!

Jim

Do you use bleed in your document settings?

Also, does the publisher have problems placing the files in InDesign or somewhere else? Because if so, they may want to check the options box when trying to place the AI files and make sure to select either crop area or bleed area from the dropdown list for the file to be placed. Whichever places the file correctly.

[JimCampbell]

Originally Posted by Thomas Mauer

Do you use bleed in your document settings?

I use the template they sent me. This is my oldest, and biggest, client -- I suspect their workflow is making life unnecessarily complicated for them and I have tried to understand it properly and to offer helpful suggestions about how my work can better integrate into what they do at their end but have been politely, but firmly, rebuffed.

Short version: they pay me; I do what they tell me. If CS5 buggers up their template, I don't use CS5.

Cheers!

Jim