How to save as ai file format or export ai format?

[Ahmad Wali]

Hello

I am really struggling as all the Offset Printing companies say please provide ai file, when I provide PDF, SVG or EPS it doesn't work and the colors change a lot. They always ask for ai file to get the correct print for the designs.

What to do here? This is frustrating and I might have to switch to Illustrator

Anyone facing this issue?

 

Thank You

[Joachim_L]

2 hours ago, Ahmad Wali said:

as all the Offset Printing companies say please provide ai file

In all my years NO offset printing company asked for an AI file. This best choice until now is PDF. There is no option within the Affinity applications to export as AI. What were your problems with the PDF? Wrong colours? If the document setup is correct for printing and all elements of the document are correct for printing and the PDF export setting is correct for printing there should be no problem with colours.

[Ahmad Wali]

2 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

In all my years NO offset printing company asked for an AI file. This best choice until now is PDF. There is no option within the Affinity applications to export as AI. What were your problems with the PDF? Wrong colours? If the document setup is correct for printing and all elements of the document are correct for printing and the PDF export setting is correct for printing there should be no problem with colours.

Good for you that no one did, I did some orders in China they asked for it and I did some orders in my country UAE each and every single printing company have asked for it. I would rather request AFFINITY to add this feature, it is very much needed.

 

[Pšenda]

18 hours ago, Ahmad Wali said:

I would rather request AFFINITY to add this feature, it is very much needed.

As Serif has repeatedly stated, the problem with the ai format is that it is a proprietary and undocumented format from Adobe. So you may have to wait a few years to add it, if at all.

If your printing company "requires" an ai file, export it as a pdf and rename the resulting file to ai. However, this will not solve the color problem, because this problem is "not" caused by the format (file name), but by some color settings (profile) in your workflow.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Pšenda said:

However, this will not solve the color problem, because this problem is "not" caused by the format (file name), but by some color settings (profile) in your workflow.

I agree.

@Ahmad Wali: If you could provide a sample .afdesign file and an exported PDF that have this problem, perhaps we could help you figure out how the issue and help you get them to export properly.

[Ahmad Wali]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I agree.

@Ahmad Wali: If you could provide a sample .afdesign file and an exported PDF that have this problem, perhaps we could help you figure out how the issue and help you get them to export properly.

Thank you so much for the help, can I send the files to you in private because don't want these to be available publicly?

I am using CMYK US WEB COATED SWOP V2 as document settings and when saving in PDF it is inherited from main working file in .afdesign.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

Unfortunately I am probably not the best person to help with this particular issue. I might be able to, and I'm willing to try, but there are others here in the forums with more exertise than I have in this area.

As it sounds like you have the problem regularly, not just with one file, perhaps you have one which is not sensitive and can be shared openly? Or perhaps you can create a new one that you could share, using the same workflow as your other files?

[Ahmad Wali]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You're welcome.

Unfortunately I am probably not the best person to help with this particular issue. I might be able to, and I'm willing to try, but there are others here in the forums with more exertise than I have in this area.

As it sounds like you have the problem regularly, not just with one file, perhaps you have one which is not sensitive and can be shared openly? Or perhaps you can create a new one that you could share, using the same workflow as your other files?

Ok this file can be seen, please review the test file attached.

test-file-AFF.afdesign test-file-PDF.pdf

[Ahmad Wali]

7 hours ago, Pšenda said:

As Serif has repeatedly stated, the problem with the ai format is that it is a proprietary and undocumented format from Adobe. So you may have to wait a few years to add it, if at all.

If your printing company "requires" an ai file, export it as a pdf and rename the resulting file to ai. However, this will not solve the color problem, because this problem is "not" caused by the format (file name), but by some color settings (profile) in your workflow.

I am using CMYK in document setup and the PDF is saved as inherited from the main file. I have attached the sample files how I am doing it.

[walt.farrell]

Thanks for the files. I don't see anything wrong, but as I said there are others with more expertise in this area than I.

Is the problem that the PDF colors are changing when printed at the print shop? If so, are you sure you're using the right color profile? I see the .afdesign document uses CMYK and US Web Coated (SWOP) v2. Is that the correct profile for the way the print shop is trying to print it? What have they instructed you to use?

[Pšenda]

On 12/4/2020 at 9:03 AM, Ahmad Wali said:

the colors change a lot

You write that the colors change. What does it mean? That after printing they look different than on your screen? Is there a problem setting up your icc profile for the monitor in the OS? Simple test - is white color white or yellow?

 

 

[Ahmad Wali]

51 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

You write that the colors change. What does it mean? That after printing they look different than on your screen? Is there a problem setting up your icc profile for the monitor in the OS? Simple test - is white color white or yellow?

 

 

I am using Macbook Pro and the printing company they open the file in Adobe Illustrator on Windows. Is this causing any issue?

[MikeW]

Windows or Mac, makes no difference. The pdf opens properly in Acrobat with the colors as per the AD file. The color issue is possibly/probably due to them using a different output profile than the AD file...or down to the fact without an embedded profile, their copy of either Acrobat or AI is defaulting to a different cmyk profile.

However:

All your base rectangles are rotated 0.1 degrees (the black and "gold" rectangles) and likely shouldn't be.

Your gradients in the two shields use a gradient overlay, which causes them to be output as bitmaps, and could have been made using actual gradients so they remain vector. Dunno if this makes a difference to the print establishment or not.

If this design is for packaging, they may need to AI file to either use a plug-in made for packaging, or move things manually into place, put cropmarks on items and/or the design as a whole, etc.

Opening your pdf in AI creates a lot of work. Now, it only took me between a half hour and one hour to do that work in AI (I didn't time it and was interrupted several times). But the work required to turn an AD-generated pdf into an AI file isn't something many/most print shops can/should ever have to do.

In short, if the printing companies need AI files, you need to be using AI.

[Tim Pro]

On 12/4/2020 at 6:03 PM, Joachim_L said:

In all my years NO offset printing company asked for an AI file. 

I work for an offset printing company and nevertheless, I will say that for me personally, YES, Ai files are preferable. Although, by and large, I don't see much difference between Ai and PDF, since Illustrator can open PDF in the same way as Ai. The only difference is that layers can be stored in the Ai file, but they are usually disabled in PDF.
It can also depend on the program in which the final print is made. Requests to send files to Ai may be related to the fact that the final result is collected, for example, in the same CorelDRAW program, which reads Ai files (most likely in a minor version) and does not read PDF.
Everything is determined by the program that will print the final result.

[Tim Pro]

On 12/5/2020 at 11:19 PM, Ahmad Wali said:

Ok this file can be seen, please review the test file attached.

test-file-AFF.afdesign 265.2 kB · 5 downloads test-file-PDF.pdf 595.23 kB · 4 downloads

I compared your files in Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator and found no difference in color. Of course, there are small fractional errors, but this is a common phenomenon when transferring from one program to another.
If you looked at the color in Adobe Acrobat, then there are some subtleties how to see the original color values, because it shows the color based on the set profile in the Output Preview (Simulation Profile). If you used some other program, you may have an automatic conversion to a different profile.
But I have the colors in both of your files matched (see screenshots).

[Ahmad Wali]

1 hour ago, Tim Pro said:

I compared your files in Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator and found no difference in color. Of course, there are small fractional errors, but this is a common phenomenon when transferring from one program to another.
If you looked at the color in Adobe Acrobat, then there are some subtleties how to see the original color values, because it shows the color based on the set profile in the Output Preview (Simulation Profile). If you used some other program, you may have an automatic conversion to a different profile.
But I have the colors in both of your files matched (see screenshots).

That's very interesting, this means there must be a problem at printing company end either using CMYK or 2 color printing. I heard they try to save costs by using different methods.

[Tim Pro]

14 hours ago, Ahmad Wali said:

That's very interesting, this means there must be a problem at printing company end either using CMYK or 2 color printing. I heard they try to save costs by using different methods.

Try to find out what exactly they explain the difficulty with printing. Then something more can be said.

By the way, I would advise you to change the black values (72, 68, 67, 88 - the sum of colors 295), because it is completely unsuitable for printing. Usually such color is not used (I usually always change the black at the client's files for a more printable one). Better put 0.0,0,100 black with an overprint or make a composite black, for example, 20,20,20,100. The composite black will be richer, but in your situation it is risky, because there are thin white lines if the plates are not aligned, they can give unwanted color stripes from displacement.
Well, that's just advice.