Saving Illustrator Files or Creating High Resolution files from Illustrator

Set your page size to the actual size of the piece. Example: If you are creating a 4x9 rack card with bleed make sure the bleed is at least 1/8th (.125) of an inch outside the page area of the document. 

When saving a High Resolution PDF from Illustrator go to the File tab at the top of the document. 

Click Save As: Click the drop down menu at the bottom and choose Adobe PDF. When the options box appears at the top tab that has ADOBE PDF PRESETS - choose High Quality Print.

Click the GENERAL TAB at left check the boxes : PRESERVE ILLUSTRATOR EDITING CAPABILITIES, AND EMBED PAGE THUMBNAILS. 

Click the COMPRESSION TAB at left: Under Color Bitmap Images, Grayscale Bitmap Images, and Monochrome Images: choose DO NOT DOWNSAMPLE. ALSO MAKE SURE THE COMPRESS TEXT AND LINE ART BOX IS NOT CHECKED. 

Click the MARKS AND BLEED TAB at left: Uncheck any marks boxes, make sure to put .125 (1/8th of an inch) for the bleed in the top, bottom, left and right, only if you have bleed running off the page.

Click the OUTPUT TAB on the left: Under color: Make sure to choose: NO CONVERSION SKIP THE OTHER 3 TABS TO THE LEFT: ADVANCED, SECURITY, SUMMARY FINALLY PRESS THE BLUE SAVE PDF BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM AND SEND TO THE PRINTER!

I will be writing tip and tricks on colors (CMYK and PMS) and images a little later. Some of the tips will help our customers save money by correctly setting up the illustrator files for Printing. This will prevent the need to work on the files and run into surprises during the prefighting process.