Transparency issue.

[Bobby H]

Roland VersaWorks is pretty finicky about what kind of Illustrator-generated .EPS files it will bring and do print & cut operations successfully.

.PDF definitely works a lot better than .EPS for transparent items, floated raster-based elements from Photoshop, etc. OTOH, when you have a lot of those kinds of items in the file VersaWorks won't make a cut path active. Even the existence of one clipping mask can cancel out the cut contour function. So I only use this approach when I am printing only.

Another drawback with bringing .PDF into VersaWorks: it tends to include the art board behind the art rather than just the art on its own (.EPS just includes the objects and not the whole art board).

Often it's easier to just copy/paste the Illustrator artwork into Adobe Photoshop, save a TIFF image and then bring it back into Illustrator to make a .EPS file that embeds the TIFF and cut path together. The TIFF can eat a lot of hard disc space, but it's not necessary to save it. Just make a note of what had to be done with the Illustrator artwork if another print has to be made.

 

[designflow]

Ive used the expand button under object and make sure with the gradient you click the gradient mesh button to keep your fade?

 

[BPI Color]

Here's the catch with eps. Adobe has ceased development for it. But, they keep adding to features for transperancy and blend. PDF might be your best bet. If worst comes to worst, make the most advanced PDF you can. Use Zip compression (jpeg is the default and I'm convinced it's the culprit behind 90% of transparency artifacts). If your RIP can't process the PDF open your file in Acrobat and do File > Save as > image > tiff. Click the "Settings" button in the resulting dialog box. Pick the ppi and color space appropriate to your art. Open it in Photoshop and give it a thorough inspection. You may have a few trace errors. Retouch and save.