Drawings

• File format: Save drawings made in vector drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand or Corel Draw in the EPS format if they are to be used in a desktop publishing program like QuarkXPress or PageMaker. Avoid other formats like PICT or CDR.
• Corel Draw lens effects and tiles: Avoid extensive use of lens effects in Corel Draw. They create big PostScript files, don’t always print as they appear on screen or won’t print at all. Even though an earlier topic in this text warned against using bitmap images (BMP), a possible work-around for this situation in Corel is to convert objects that use the lens effect to a bitmap. This will make them easier to RIP. The same is also true for tiles. If they aren’t converted to bitmaps, small white lines may also show up between the tiles.
• Illustrator 7.0: If you still use Adobe Illustrator 7.0 to create vector art, drawings should be saved in Illustrator 6 format. Or you could upgrade to Illustrator 7.02 in which several bugs have been fixed.
• EPS in EPS: Avoid EPS-nesting: never put an EPS-drawing in another EPS-drawing. Use “copy” and “paste” from one drawing to the other to create only one file.
• Size: If the drawing contains bitmap images (scans,..) you should never enlarge or reduce the drawing more than 20 percent in your layout application. Enlarging it will lead to pixelization and staircasing. Reducing it too much will lead to a loss in sharpness and contrast.