• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

PDF vs. EPS

Marlene

Marlene

New Member
isn't a PDF just a way to share a file so anyone with any program can read it? it isn't the quality of the PDF but the fine in it that makes the difference? this is how I thought this worked, am I wrong?
 
S

Sign Eagle

New Member
We print from Flexi but we normally open PDF in Photoshop first to prevent Flexi from making any changes, we don't do that with EPS file. We get good results from PDF converted to Photoshop files.
 
bob

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Marlene said:
isn't a PDF just a way to share a file so anyone with any program can read it? it isn't the quality of the PDF but the fine in it that makes the difference? this is how I thought this worked, am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Pdf, much like its vicious little cousin eps, was/is supposed to be a container for relatively common objects such as text, bitmaps, vector data. etc.These are well defined. Alas there is no transcendental standard for things such as transparencies and gradients thus these can be iffy.

It was supposed to be, back in the day, an attempt at a universal file format. It can work but there can be subtle but annoying color shifts, especially with mid-range greens. They often tend to come out more olive than green. Other colors are affected as well.

A pdf is a way to share information between packages and often platforms but it's far from perfect and, in some cases, even acceptable.
 
C

ColoPrinthead

Guest
ResolutionInk said:
Im using onyx 10 production house and GS6000

PDF's just seem to always look washed out
Click to expand...
I have the same set up and the only difference I experience is that with an EPS I do not get the white space of an oversized art board in preflight. I have both PDF and EPS files in my work flow, I just use what ever I am given and try to keep out of the file set up arena as much as possible.

I wonder if you have different profiles or color spaces setup in your files.
 
Tim Aucoin

Tim Aucoin

New Member
99.9% PDF workflow here. A PDF is only as good as how it was generated. It has come a LONG WAY over the years! If the "designer" is for instance, creating the file in Illustrator, there are dozens of possible options when saving files to PDF, and if it is not done correctly, then of course the printed result is not going to be optimal as desired.

I would bet every hair on my head that most folks who save as PDF from Illustrator use the "Illustrator Default" setting that pops up and don't give it a second thought! :frustrated:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top