Best format for export to page layout?

[NickB]

Hi, as NNA has just published Images of CAD I reckon someone round here should have a good answer to this.

I am working on a book/brochure for a project I have done and I'm laying it out in InDesign 2.0 with text, footnotes, page nos etc. What is the 'best' format for placed VW line drawings?

should I print the drawing as a PDF and place that, or would exporting a high-res TIFF be better? What about going via DWG/DXF?

Ideally I would like the drawings to be vector graphics for sharpness/resolution independence/file size. Any tips that people might be able to give are most gratefully received.

Cheers, Nick.

[Travis]

Nick,

I've had great luck exporting to Photoshop (.psd) at a fairly high resolution but sized fairly close to the estimated final image, thus allowing me to crop/expand some without compromising the finished output (we print our promo stuff at 133lpi). Remember, eventually all images are converted to dots before printing. It also allows easy "fiddling with" in Photoshop before placing the image in InDesign, which we also use.

I've had much less success trying to use one of the vector formats. I'd be interested to know how/if others make that work. It's interesting to me that Adobe's Illustrator will export in dwg/dxf format but it won't read it.

Good luck,

[NickB]

Travis,

Thanks for the reply. It's true it's all dots in the end, but I want to be a bit purist about it (and remove resolution worries) by maintaining a vector drawing as vectors for as long as possible.

If I want to adjust my paper format (larger) at a later date it would be ideal if I didn't have to go through and re-render my drawings all over again at a higher resolution.

I must admit I hadn't though of going via Illustrator, but that's a good thought.

I am also interested just to hear how others do it.

PS. I use Illustrator 10 on OS X 10.3 and it will open a 2000/1/2 DWG just fine.

[cmuraglia]

Nick,

I have just recently experimented with this extensively. I used to export my graphic at high resolution .tiffs and then into Pagemaker 7.0 for layouts and such. These of course are not "vector" graphics. Using this method produces marginal results and large files (high res.)

I recently started exporting as a .DXF or .DWG opening them in Illustrator, and then saving them as either AI (Adobe Illustrator) or as a .PDF file out of Illustrator. I then place these files into Pagemaker 7.0

The funny thing with Pagemaker 7.0 (and maybe InDesign suffers from the same problem?) is that the file will look like total hell "onscreen" however it will print as sharp as a razor when it is printed. Again dont be fooled with what it looks like on screen! Also if you use this method and then export the Indesign or Pagemaker file as a .PDF the graphics will be razor sharp in the .PDF export as well. I cannot figure out why it looks like hell onscreen. I have tried going into the preferences in Pagemaker and choosing display graphics at "high resolution" it still doesn't look right on screen.

Let me know how you make out.

Chris

[Jacques]

We have a good success rate in our office putting PDF's into Pagemaker 7. The lines come out crisp and colour is excellent!

I think it's possible to have PDF's in inDesign as well.

[NickB]

Chris,

In my experience with Quark and InDesign, DTP software likes to use a pixelated 'placeholder' image for on screen display. It does look like hell on screen but screen redraw is kept quick. When it comes to printing, the original vector graphics are substituted back in and the output comes out razor sharp. In InDesign, under the View menu there is an Overprint Preview option that attempts to show exactly how the printed page will look. This option reads the original vectors and so shows the razor sharp images. Performance does suffer though, especially on a complicated document.

Jacques, how do you produce your PDFs?

Nick

[cmuraglia]

Nick,

I just ordered the adobe creative pack which has InDesign in it. I know adobe is phasing out Pagemaker. What do you think of InDesign for doing your layouts? Im afraid to make the transition. As an aside do you have a problem with strange line weights when you produce .PDF's directly out of Vectorworks?

Thanks

Chris

[Jacques]

quote:

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Originally posted by NickB:

Jacques, how do you produce your PDFs?

Nick

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Have a look here... OSX PDF printing

I will soon be looking at going to Acrobat though...

-Jacques

[NickB]

Chris, I haven't used Pagemaker so can't compare the two, but InDesign is very capable. It ties in with Photoshop and Illustrator almost seamlessly which eases problems with eps and tiffs etc. The only drawback I have found is that it might have a few limitations for producing technical documents. I wanted to use automated endnotes and footnotes at one point and had to do it manually in the end.

As for line weights, follow Jacques' link, it looks interesting.

Nick