• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Export as EPS or PDF ? whats the difference ?

autoexebat

New Member
I have a Roland printer and since 2013 I've always exported as EPS , finally I've hit my max disk space and with 2tb full of files I figured I'd try to print PDF ..and it doesn't seem to have any quality differences so I may continue like this .

What format do most of you all print in ?
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
EPS doesn't include an input color profile and is generally outdated even though I still use it often. PDFs can be glitchy based on the RIP you use though.
 

player

New Member
I had weird printing issues from a pdf file. I tried eps with the same file and the issues disappeared.
 

autoexebat

New Member
Thanks , I will just test and see how it goes . It's rare that I do anything in PDF but in Corel it's all vector so we will see . Some of my file sizes are just out of this word .
 

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
We’re PDF only. No problems with PDF and I’ve found more people have adobe reader than can open eps files.

With regards to file size, have you ever tried just a file - save as and saving as the same file type? For some odd reason every now and then we get huge indesign files and a save as tends to make them a lot smaller for no apparent reason.
 

autoexebat

New Member
We’re PDF only. No problems with PDF and I’ve found more people have adobe reader than can open eps files.

With regards to file size, have you ever tried just a file - save as and saving as the same file type? For some odd reason every now and then we get huge indesign files and a save as tends to make them a lot smaller for no apparent reason.

I always save as ,
 

myront

CorelDRAW is best
Corel? First choice PDF with fonts converted.
You can use eps just as long as the design is fairly simple. When you get into complex fills and special effects eps can be problematic.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
PDF's give a lot of control over color. Besides the 4 PDF presets you can also select Illustrator, High Quality or Press Quality. Lots of options.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
You can enable PDF thumbnail in windows which is also a plus.

...and you can use Acrobat to preflight files you get from clients. Make sure there are no spot colors, check layers, and if they actually gave you the 350ppi raster images you asked for. Tons of options for checking, and editing.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
I like EPS over PDF because it sizes to the elements and not the artboard in AI, this means I don't have to size my artboard if I am in a rush.
I used to hate PDF because of that. One of our designers loves using guide lines and deleting the line, but not the end points... so everytime I load something in onyx... It'd rip a 200" x 200" file and take forever. every other file she did this... She couldnt wrap her head around how to prevent it. So...we switched to pdf. And I hated the whole artboard thing too.

Until I found out you can make a shortcut... All I do is select the art, hit F2, and the board automatically resizes to the graphics. Super quick and easy.


[Edit] found a quick guide on how to make the shortcut for those interested.


Skip to 3:30 if you just want to see how to setup the shortcut.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
Thanks , I will just test and see how it goes . It's rare that I do anything in PDF but in Corel it's all vector so we will see . Some of my file sizes are just out of this word .
I dont know if corel is the same - But in Illustrator theres a "Preserve illustrator editing capabilities" Which will almost double the size of a PDF... we dont worry about filesize since hard drives are cheap, but if you're low on space... unchecking that in illustrator works, might want to see of corel has the same option.
 

Bradley Signs

Bradley Signs
I've been using EPS from Corel to my cutting software, basically, because that is what I learned to use first. Customers send me PDF files and I really have no issues with them for printing or cutting....
I do my printing from Corel with JPG, PNG, PDF... or whatever I have to work with.
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
autoexebat said:
I have a Roland printer and since 2013 I've always exported as EPS , finally I've hit my max disk space and with 2tb full of files

You're saving all the files you export for RIP purposes? If so it seems like a waste of disc space to me. I certainly keep the original master file and any related original assets for a certain project. But files exported just to RIP or send to a routing table usually get trashed unless there is something special about them.

autoexebat said:
What format do most of you all print in ?

For our shop, it depends on the nature of the artwork and the application used to create it. If it's relatively simple artwork with flat fills then exporting EPS straight out of CorelDRAW is good enough. Artwork with more complex, advanced effects may require PDF (or even a round-trip through Illustrator, AI file exported from CDR and then PDF exported from AI).

Our shop previously used VersaWorks with the Roland VersaCAMM printer we retired a few years ago. I can recall VersaWorks not liking EPS files if they contained elements such as transparent/floated pixel-based elements brought into Illustrator from Photoshop. I had to use PDF to print that kind of hybrid raster/vector content.

For a long time Illustrator has been able to create gradient fills that can be squeezed or slanted out of normal proportions and the start/stop positions not contrained by the bounds of the filled object. Plus, the gradient stops could have degrees of transparency. CorelDRAW adopted similar gradient fill capabilities with CDR 2018 (which makes porting AI-based art into CorelDRAW and vice versa easier). Anyway, PDF seems to be more reliable at preserving those kinds of gradient fills.

There's lot of other live effects I generally prefer to expand, flatten, break apart or convert to curves before sending to a printer. That even includes converting fonts to outlines (unless there are literally paragraphs of body copy to print). Some pre-flight testing should be done with any plug-in based effects.

ikarasu said:
I dont know if corel is the same - But in Illustrator theres a "Preserve illustrator editing capabilities" Which will almost double the size of a PDF... we dont worry about filesize since hard drives are cheap, but if you're low on space... unchecking that in illustrator works, might want to see of corel has the same option.

The "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" option essentially saves the Adobe Illustrator data in with the PDF. It's basically an Illustrator file that can be viewed in Adobe Reader. AI files with PDF compatibility turned on can be dragged into Adobe Reader too.

If I'm sending someone a logo file or something else they intend to edit further or bring into another layout I'll choose that option. PDFs that are not Illustrator-friendly tend to run into LOTS of technical problems if the PDF is imported for other uses than just printing. Astute Graphics' Vector First Aid plug-in for Illustrator can solve a lot of problems with imported PDF artwork. But it's 100% perfect either; additional editing may be required.
 

WYLDGFI

Merchant Member
We do EPS, PDF & tiff here. You're not saving much space if you do PDF. Flattening issues....color profiles...compression and low res within PDF conversions...just 3 issues off the top of my head if you're not careful.
Saving as a COMPLETE PDF...no color conversion...no compression....its more convenient but you're not saving any HD space. What you are doing is limiting your image area to your artboard. That does make things a bit easier for ripping and less questions are the sizes correct...etc. Suggest another HD and begin a backup procedure.
 

myront

CorelDRAW is best
... we dont worry about filesize since hard drives are cheap, but if you're low on space... ...

File size has nothing to do with disc space. File size that takes 20 minutes to RIP is unacceptable! I've sent some pdf's to print and when my print tech tells me it's taking a long time to RIP I'll throw a tiff at 'em. RIPs in seconds.
 

karst41

New Member
I have a Roland printer and since 2013 I've always exported as EPS , finally I've hit my max disk space and with 2tb full of files I figured I'd try to print PDF ..and it doesn't seem to have any quality differences so I may continue like this .

What format do most of you all print in ?

When designers create in Illustrator, I prefer to receive the in PDF. When I open the file in Illustrator, it converts back to paths and I can edit as needed. From there I will save as .AI and I prefer to import AI into Flexi and Rip straight away on the HP Latex using Color Correction mode. It sorts out the CMYK nicely.
 
Top