H.Creative

I have to agree with neojogo. It's time for AD to output pdfs without rasterizing. Ive been in Illustrator since 1989, and AD's output capabilities are the only thing holding be back from using it full time. I recently did a 4" logo, with gradients and transparencies, and enlarged it to 48" for a meter board. Illustrator had no problem, but AF rasterized the darn thing. If I wanted it rasterized I would have built it in AP or Photoshop.
There is no doubt Designer is great for web, but for print design – serious print design – it's a no-go – until they correct the output issue. Sorry.

Thanks for writing all that up Signguy. I learned a lot from your trail.
 
There is a lot of nuance that doesn't become important, or obvious to a general user, until a problem exposes the drama. There's always something to learn.

Thanks in advance friends...
 
 
...when flattening into a single pixel layer, do I first need to rasterize the grouped layers? Not sure how to do this, i.e, I'm unclear on the steps involved, and the proper order in which to perform them. A brief walk-thru would be greatly appreciated.
 
FYI - I am wanting to manipulate the Flat image (bend, curve around a cylindrical surface such as a large barrel or a utility pole, alter perspective and/or viewing angle, stretch by pulling/moving nodes independently of each other, etc).
 
greateful for your help,
-Christo