Issues with Illustrator PDF Scale Exports

[Chicken Quasar]

Hello awesome community!

I'm exporting a raster/vector image from Illustrator as a PDF and adobe keeps scaling it to a 1/10 scale. Thats all fine and dandy for the vector parts of the image of course. But the raster parts of the image after scaling it back up by 1000% are still not as sharp as they look in illustrator. They look acceptable for the client but of course theres degradation.

I don't want to use JPEG or TIFF because I want the vector renders to look as good as possible. Is there any way to get adobe to export a PDF at 100%? My file is about 96 x 400 inches. I know it's big.

Thank you!!!

 

[Solventinkjet]

That's bigger than the max canvas size for illustrator so it will have to be scaled at least somewhat. I would check your PDF settings when you go to save the file. Make sure the option to down sample images is turned off.

 

[Chicken Quasar]

That's bigger than the max canvas size for illustrator so it will have to be scaled at least somewhat. I would check your PDF settings when you go to save the file. Make sure the option to down sample images is turned off.

Thank you for the hunch. Do you know where that is in the PDF illustrator export settings?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Thank you for the hunch. Do you know where that is in the PDF illustrator export settings?

I believe it's in the compression tab.

 

[Aaron Hunter]

The default setting on Compatibility is Acrobat 5 (1.4). Change it to Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6).

 

[Aaron Hunter]

That's bigger than the max canvas size for illustrator so it will have to be scaled at least somewhat. I would check your PDF settings when you go to save the file. Make sure the option to down sample images is turned off.

You can use large canvas to get up to approximately 2200" x 2200"

 

[Chicken Quasar]

The default setting on Compatibility is Acrobat 5 (1.4). Change it to Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6).

Will that allow me to export it at 100% and not do any scaling down?

 

[Chicken Quasar]

You can use large canvas to get up to approximately 2200" x 2200"

Is large canvas an option in the pdf export settings?

 

[Graphic Extremes]

You set the original canvas size to those dimensions and it will save at full scale.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/large-sized-artwork.html

Read this on saving files:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/large-sized-canvas-troubleshooting.html#canvas-area

 

[Aaron Hunter]

Will that allow me to export it at 100% and not do any scaling down?

Large Canvas won't necessarily solve the issue whereas setting the Compatibility to Acrobat 7 will stop AI from auto reducing to 10%

 

[Graphic Extremes]

Large Canvas won't necessarily solve the issue whereas setting the Compatibility to Acrobat 7 will stop AI from auto reducing to 10%

read this.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/large-sized-canvas-troubleshooting.html#canvas-area

 

[Aaron Hunter]

Hello awesome community!

I'm exporting a raster/vector image from Illustrator as a PDF and adobe keeps scaling it to a 1/10 scale. Thats all fine and dandy for the vector parts of the image of course. But the raster parts of the image after scaling it back up by 1000% are still not as sharp as they look in illustrator. They look acceptable for the client but of course theres degradation.

I don't want to use JPEG or TIFF because I want the vector renders to look as good as possible. Is there any way to get adobe to export a PDF at 100%? My file is about 96 x 400 inches. I know it's big.

Thank you!!!

With the dimensions you're spec'ing I'm guessing you are already working with large canvas. I often do our exhibit murals at full size without issue. I created a "save as PDF" preference. SC's of each of those settings below.

 

[wendy kong]

eco-slovent canvas
waterproof canvas
waterbased canvas
width up to 5.2 meter