I hired a graphic designer to design my CD rom game, which I have paid a company in India to print and package. The artist designed the cardboard sleeve using In Design, and the file extension is pdf. The company in India could not open the file, and said that he has to have the design sent to him in either Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.
I asked the artist to convert the In Design file to to one of those two formats. The artist said he does not have Corel Draw, but he could convert the file to Adobe Illustrator. He did, and the new file was sent to the company in India.
The company in India printed a sample CD for me and mailed it to me. The printing quality was great, but I noticed that some of the numbers and words were way out of alignment. I looked at the file that was designed by the artist, and nothing was out of alignment, so I told the printer in India. The printer in India said it was a problem in the design, and that the artist would have to change the alignment in his program. So I told the artist this, and the artist obliged. However, when this file was sent to the printer in India, the printer in India wrote back and told me that the artist would have to provide the design in Corel Draw. We have now gone in a complete circle.
Can anyone tell me what is happening? I have no idea about these different formats, and I don't know who is doing something wrong. The printer says he always receives artwork "in AI or CDR format" and the artist says he has never heard of a company not being able to accept pdf files.
I would think that if the printing company was able to print from an Illustrator file befor, that they should be able to print it again. If they can't do it, you just might have to pull your contract from them, and find a printing place that can take the files you're artist works with. Next time I'd recomend getting all that squared away befor you go to print. Find out what type of files your artist works with, then find a printing house that can print from those files. Also maybe to a few test mock ups befor hand too, so you can see their quality.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
I did ask the printer what format he preferred the art to be submitted in, but he either missed the question in the email, or forgot to address it. So I went on and told the artist to start on the design. I was banking on the possibility that the artist had done artwork for cd replication companies in the past, and would already know what they'd accept. Apparently he HAD, and they accepted In Design, but this company did not.
I did tell the printer that in the future it would be better to provide information about what formats he accepts beforehand, and he will probably do that, but it doesn't help my situation any. I'm already in a comittment with this printer, and it's too late to back out now.
What about converting In Design to Corel Draw? Is that known to cause a loss in print quality?