Chris cannot reply directly to the list so I will have to be intermediary I can turn a pdf (or any vector file) into a 'usable' file by rasterising it. I often do. I can set the ppi when doing so at whatever I wish, so that is not a difficulty. But, for this purpose: 1. The file itself is too massive to be used - we are talking hundreds of mb here (after sizing for the page) 2. It is no longer editable, thus removing the whole point of the exercise. It will rastorise with the same parameters as the native file - I won't be able to edit the line thickness, in particular, not any other element (which is the whole point of wanting the .ai file to work). Rastored files are actually my first stage when I redraw surveys, so I can use them to create my own file - it's what I base that work on, so I'm well used to their benefits and limitations. For this, it doesn't work. I think that point 1 in your mail to the therion group might mislead some - this factor of transparency must be one that is under the control of the person creating the file (the choice of using transparency or a solid colour) and not a restriction of the package. I suspect it is something that is easy to do to create an effect and, reasonably, it is therefore done ... But doesn't help if the aim is print on paper by a third party (me!). Chris On 21/07/10 09:04, Martin Sluka wrote:
Andy, try to rasterize PDF in Photoshop to 360 or 240 or 180 dpi (depending on scale you need to reduce size). It will reduce all problems with too huge vector formats.
Martin
On 21.7.2010, at 9:58, Andrew Atkinson wrote:
Hi
We are trying to send our Charterhouse survey to Descent for publication. Chris Howes, the editor, would love to have an output he can use directly, but as yet this is not to be.
Over a series of emails here are some of the points that he has made. I hope I have not taken them out of context in editing them down to a single email. (I also accept some of the comments may come from the fact I do not understand some of the features of Therion or some of the terminology) Hope this is useful for future development
1 My problem was that if I'm using colour on a page, I often use a tinted background and/or run bits of survey across a photo corner or something (or even over a graphic) as part of my layout. But if there is transparency in the fill, I can't do that. What's needed is for no transparency to be used in 'normal' fills = all passages, but instead a solid colour. For overlying bits, transparency is fine for the upper section, but not the lower.
Transparency for all 'non cave' bits = the background *should* be transparent of course.
2 Another oddity - there seemed to be a lot of non-stroked detail/bits way off the passages/survey that don't show up but are selectable. Doesn't seem to affect anything and I can't even see them, but only spot that *something* is there when trying to select the image. Odd - not a problem (as far as I know) but as this is a report on what happens here, I thought I'd mention it.
3a (svg with walls and lables only, no passage fill colour)
I can change the line weight okay, but as I hit as a problem before when working on files like this, the paths don't seem to stay as a path (text, for example, aren't words but just single letters) and I can't figure out how to do a fill to add colour to the passage content. That is, if there is a colour there, I'm pretty sure I can change it but I can't select enough to actually add a fill in the first place.
3b (svg with only cross section switched off) The detailed view won't open correctly in Illustrator - there are warnings about too many nested groups (surprising considering the complexity of the .svg files for the Three Counties that are in the next issue, which breezed through) and that it might not look correct, then it opens with most of the content missing (the only bit that appears fully intact is at the extreme bottom and only for a few metres). Needed for this I think/suspect: some work in flattening/decreasing grouping in the original before creating the .svg, but I don't have experience of the creating package (nor any other vector software).
3c (pdf with cross sections off) Having imported the pdf to Illustrator, as I mentioned already evident is that the file has been simplified by having taken that route, rather than the svg. At least, that's my assumption as it opened without warning about groups, as opposed to opening without any real content remaining.
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