Exporting Images

[Guest]

Hi all,

Could anyone tell me what is the best format, dpi, etc to export an image from VW into say Illustrator?

Thanks

[propstuff]

What sort of image?

Graphics?

Linework?

What do you want to do with them?

Why illustrator?

All these things are relevant to your question.

[Guest]

Nicholas - thanks,

My web site needs a rebuild and I am in the process of doing that. I want to include some VW work that I have completed to show what a 'Landscape Concept Plan' means compared to a 'Landscape Construction Drawing' compared to say a 'Landscape Planting Plan' compared to an Arborist Report etc in a graphically rich way. All of these sorts of drawings I do in VW. I use Worksheets for things like Plant Legends and Existing Trees. I have details for construction drawings etc. I am thinking I would like to say lay a Plant Legend over the top of a Planting Plan or a detail of say some stairs over a construction drawing but still have the ability to use other images external to VW within those areas.

My reasoning for Illustrator because there I can combine all of this and then get it into my new web site - so they have to be good quality. I find VW has lots of options to export image files. Simple stuff I can take out as dwg/dxf but others I cannot get to translate that well. I find - what do you call it - pixelating to be a problem.

If that makes any sense?

[propstuff]

Darrell,

If you are exporting linework you can use the EPS (a native illustrator) format and you will get editable linework in Illustrator for a much smaller file size than an image. Not necessary, but may be an advantage for you. Ultimately it will probably end up being an image on the web site anyway.

Generally, I export to 300DPI -highest quality JPGs at the largest physical print size I want them to be printed.

Now, screens will display at 96 or 72 "DPI" max, so there is little point putting an image intended for an A4 print (about 3000 pixels across and 8Mb in size ) on screen. If you export at say, 96 dpi and at the finished pixel dimension you want it to display (say 800 across) it should look ok.

If you want a larger display that is unpixelated, then you have to export a larger image.

What I generally do is export at print res, then make a copy in Photoshop, down size it to the screen res, then do Save For Web to optimise it. This strips out a lot of the file colour data and makes for smaller file sizes for the same pixel dimension. It also makes them look a bit insipid, so prior to doing Save For Web, it's a good idea to jack up the Saturation and apply Sharpening to the image. ;-/

Another option for images is PNG instead of JPG which will arguably give better quality images for the "same" file size.

HTH,

N.

[Guest]

Nicholas,

Thanks so much - I will give it a go