Understanding Containment (especially re: Artboards)

[Mtl_Biker]

I'm (obviously) a little confused about artboards and object containment...  I have multiple artboards (all butted together) and if I place a PDF on top that's larger than the artboard size, it is visible only on the artboard it was placed on.  I get that.  So I select the PDF in the layers panel and drag it up to the top above all the artboards.  Now it's visible on all the artboards so the entire PDF can be seen.  Okay.

But if I try to print it, if I select to print artboads, the PDF does not print.  And if I select document to print, only one page prints and it's not even the first one.  I don't understand this.  It looks like I would have to have copies of the PDF on EVERY artboard that it covers. 

But if I EXPORT to a PDF format, all the artboards AND the PDF I'd placed go into the new PDF.  And I can then print that PDF perfectly.

This is all so confusing to a newbie like me.  SIGH

 

 

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Mtl_Biker said:

But if I try to print it, if I select to print artboads, the PDF does not print.

That is because even though it is visible in the document window it is no longer in any of the artboards.

5 hours ago, Mtl_Biker said:

But if I EXPORT to a PDF format, all the artboards AND the PDF I'd placed go into the new PDF. 

For me, that happens only if 1) the placed PDF is in one of the artboards and 2) I select "Whole Document" in the Area: item in the export window. What export settings are you using?

[Mtl_Biker]

14 hours ago, R C-R said:

That is because even though it is visible in the document window it is no longer in any of the artboards.

For me, that happens only if 1) the placed PDF is in one of the artboards and 2) I select "Whole Document" in the Area: item in the export window. What export settings are you using?

Whether I'm trying to print or export, the setting was "Whole Document" and in my case everything was moved up above all the artboards.  So basically the same settings and the same document.  Only by exporting to PDF does everything print/appear as it should.

In case it makes any difference to this, what I've done was to open a large PDF file that I purchased.  It was designed to be printed on a roll plotter using 36" wide paper.  I've been trying to set it up so that I could print on my much smaller printer and then trim and tape the pages together.  On that large PDF file there are many elements (it's a men's dress shirt) so what I did was (in that large file) to select various elements and copy them to the clipboard.  Then paste them into the new document that I'd set up using artboards sized so that I could print them.  I paste them and then immediately make them a group and move that group up to the top, above all the artboards.  So I have groups like "Shirt Front", "Shirt Collar", "Shirt Sleeve", etc.  In the end there are no placed items on any of the artboards.  Yet because I've moved them to the top, they all appear like I expect.  So I guess what's confusing me is that they "print" (whether exported to PDF or printed directly) differently.

The only elements actually on the artboards are a rectangle around to make it easier to trim the pages after printing and alignment triangles for aligning them.  The actual artwork is in groups up above everything.