rockwell

I've got a design questions for you guys...

I'll take a photo, convert it to bitmap/halftone in Photoshop, and it'll look great. Then I'll open the same halftone image in Illustrator and all of a sudden the image is distorted, with a significant loss of clarify from the original? I thought the image distortion was on the screen only, so I printed the image from Illustrator and it still looks like crap. I also printed the same image from Photoshop for comparison's sake, and it looks GREAT.

I'm not resizing or doing anything else to the image besides just opening it Illustrator.

Anyone know why simply opening a halftone jpeg in Illustrator would cause a degrade in the quality of the image, and how to resolve the issue?

 

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AddVenture

what resolution are you using? what color mode is the file? cmyk, rgb, greyscale or bitmap? are you placing the image or opening the file directly with illustrator?

when i make a bitmap tif in photoshop, it will look perfect. then i'll place the image in illustrator and it looks all jaggedy and fuzzy. this is only because of the way illustrator behaves with bitmap images. if i look at the same image saved for web, illustrator will display the graphic correctly.

don't know why illy does this, it just does.

make sure your image is high res (at least 150-300dpi) and place the image into a new document. (File>Place) see if this changes anything.

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rockwell

Quote: Originally Posted by AddVenture what resolution are you using? what color mode is the file? cmyk, rgb, greyscale or bitmap? are you placing the image or opening the file directly with illustrator? when i make a bitmap tif in photoshop, it will look perfect. then i'll place the image in illustrator and it looks all jaggedy and fuzzy. this is only because of the way illustrator behaves with bitmap images. if i look at the same image saved for web, illustrator will display the graphic correctly. don't know why illy does this, it just does. make sure your image is high res (at least 150-300dpi) and place the image into a new document. (File>Place) see if this changes anything.

The Bitmap image is Grayscale, 300 dpi and in jpeg format. I opened the file in Illustrator, as well as copy and pasted the image in Illustrator, and it still looks the same.

Yeah...the image becomes "jaggedy and fuzzy" in Illustrator. BUT...when I print the image from Illustrator, it still looks jaggedy and fuzzy? So Illustrator is actually degrading the image, because when I print it in Photoshop it looks great??

 

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rockwell

Quote: Originally Posted by AddVenture what resolution are you using? what color mode is the file? cmyk, rgb, greyscale or bitmap? are you placing the image or opening the file directly with illustrator? when i make a bitmap tif in photoshop, it will look perfect. then i'll place the image in illustrator and it looks all jaggedy and fuzzy. this is only because of the way illustrator behaves with bitmap images. if i look at the same image saved for web, illustrator will display the graphic correctly. don't know why illy does this, it just does. make sure your image is high res (at least 150-300dpi) and place the image into a new document. (File>Place) see if this changes anything.

AddVenture...when you print the Halftone from Illustrator is the quality also degraded?

 

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AddVenture

Quote: Originally Posted by rockwell AddVenture...when you print the Halftone from Illustrator is the quality also degraded?

shouldn't be.

from your description, you shouldn't be having a problem. i'm stumped.

hang tight. maybe someone else has a solution for you.

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rockwell

Quote: Originally Posted by ImageIt The problem is that bitmaps and .jpg are not compatible. Jpg is a file format you might use to send the original grayscale image into illustrator to have illustrator convert to a halftone. The best choice of file format would be eps or tiff. fred

Ok...I just saved the bitmap halftone as an .eps file, opened it in Illustrator, printed the image...and it still looks the same as the .jpg file...like crap. Yet when I print the original bitmap halftone .psd file in Photoshop it looks great?

If it's not the file format, then what else might be causing Illustrator to distort the halftone image?

 

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rockwell

Quote: Originally Posted by ImageIt I'm guessing that your printer is not postscript? If my guess is correct, try TIFF. When illustrator prints to a none postscript printer, it sends the preview image and not the EPS to the printer. Another option would be to bring the rest of the graphic into photoshop and print out of photoshop. fred

I'm not sure if my printer is postcript or not, it's an HP Deskjet 5150. I need to work in Illustrator because I'm adding text and other graphics to the halftone image. So it's not possible to work with a decent looking halftone in Illustrator? Man this is frustrating.

 

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AddVenture

Quote: Originally Posted by ImageIt I'm guessing that your printer is not postscript? If my guess is correct, try TIFF. When illustrator prints to a none postscript printer, it sends the preview image and not the EPS to the printer.

ah ha! this has got to be it. a bitmap tif should print fine from a non-postscript printer. i don't believe your epson is a postscript printer.

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prometheus

Quote: Originally Posted by AddVenture ah ha! this has got to be it. a bitmap tif should print fine from a non-postscript printer. i don't believe your epson is a postscript printer.

This can't be it. First off. I thought they've fixed that issue with inkjets (I could be wrong). Second, Illustrator was one of the only programs that you COULD print from. It had a postscript driver in it. The problem lied in programs like Quark when there was a vector file in it. Also if it is a bitmap file in illustrator, it would still seem to print fine.

I am getting a little confused in the language being used here as well. Is the file a true bitmap or greyscale?

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rockwell

Thanks for everyone's input...the problem was that Illustrator was printing all my files too dark a while ago, so I got in the habit of printing everything from Photoshop. So I saved the halftone in Illustrator as a .jpg and opened it in Photoshop to print, but it became distorted and printed distorted. I tried printing the same file directly from Illustrator again, and it looked fine this time? So the issue is with Photoshop, not the file.

I'd still like to know the reason that Photoshop screws up the halftone file when printing, even though it's in .jpg format? It's not like I was trying to open an .ai file in PS. Also the problem only occurs with halftones?

 

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