Preparation for Output

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Whether you will be taking the job to a printer in a strip mall, large commercial printer, or magazine, those companies have certain requirements. The most common comment you'll find with smaller companies is that they don't have a current version (FreeHand 10 or FreeHand MX), or have the program at all. They'll ask you to put it in some other format. Macromedia has bent over backwards to accommodate nearly everyone in this respect.

What the service bureau needs

I've worked with large service bureaus who want the job as a PostScript file, and others that want the native FreeHand file. I've also had many ask me for Illustrator files and even JPEGs. When they ask for a JPEG for a print job, I usually hang up the phone, but for most other needs, I ask them what version of what program they'd like to have. All you have to do is go to File ® Export, and choose from the long list of file formats there. Most are self-explanatory, but a few can use some clarification.

If you're providing a PostScript file, the onus is on you to have everything just right. When this file is output, no one does anything to it but make sure it comes out the other end of the machine. If you've chosen spot colors but really wanted CMYK, you're out of luck, and you'll pay for it. This is one instance where proofing the job on your desktop printer is absolutely necessary. The PostScript file contains all the fonts in the job.

When you choose File ® Export, the default is to export the file as a Macromedia Flash SWF file. The default save location is in the FreeHand 10 folder. Be sure to check which type of file you're creating, and where it's going — each time.

Some of my clients don't know where the job will be printed at the time I'm through with the artwork. To cover all the bases, I put the original FreeHand 10 file along with exports of the same job in FreeHand 8, Adobe Illustrator 8, and a PDF. I have even throw in a Quark EPS just to be sure. When I do all of these, I convert all the text to paths before making any of the exports (except for the older FreeHand file). Then I make all the exports, and choose Undo to put my live text back into the FreeHand 10 document.

Exporting to Adobe Illustrator

The largest problem with exporting to Illustrator is that type goes haywire. I've exported files to Illustrator that had entire blocks of text disappear, letter or word spacing is off, or Illustrator just works with type differently, but line breaks are all different, and text blocks shrink or grow. To solve this, it's best to convert all the text to paths. That fixes the text problem, but if a typo is discovered, the printer or service bureau will have a chore to repair it. Some of us can steal a letter here and there to clean up some spelling, but if you don't have anything to steal, you'll have to try to replicate the font. Best advice: read your text backwards. Misspelled words jump out at you when you aren't reading the words in context. Then read it again in a few minutes for content. Run FreeHand's spell checker, and have someone else proofread the text as well. At the least, you will have discovered 99 percent of the text errors before converting to paths.

Multiple-page documents are converted into consecutively named single-page documents for Illustrator. You'll have to name them something intelligent, such as "Flyer Front," and "Flyer Back" to know which page will be worked on.

Since the printer/service bureau is asking for an Illustrator file, assume that they'll be able to clean up any other minor things that happen in the export process.

Exporting to PDF

FreeHand has a PDF export, but many people have problems with the resulting files. Missing clipping paths from Photoshop TIFFs and font issues are some of the problems. Common advice is to create a PostScript file (choose the Output Options tab in the Print dialog box, check the Save As File box; then choose PostScript as the format) and then use Adobe Acrobat Distiller to create the actual PDF file. That requires an additional program, but it's bulletproof. Whichever method you choose, it's safest if you convert the text to paths.

EPS exports

There are several flavors of EPS you can use to export a document from FreeHand. When you want bulletproof, the Quark EPS method seems to get the best results if you're handing the file off to someone else. If you are running a Mac, and the file must go to a Windows environment, use the MS-DOS EPS format, or the other machine will not show the document. The most common comment about EPS files is that when the file is placed, only a box with an "X" in it appears on the page. It prints fine, but there is no preview, therefore nothing to see on the screen. The two EPS types just mentioned solve the problem, although on a Mac, the MS-DOS EPS has a very ugly black and white preview. You're better off using the Macintosh EPS format. If you have any fonts in the EPS file, do yourself and everyone else a huge favor and convert them to paths. Otherwise, you must send the necessary fonts along with the EPS, and it's just too easy to forget or lose them.

Collect for output

Unlike with Adobe Illustrator, when you want to gather fonts and graphics together to bundle for the printer, FreeHand offers a one-click solution. Well, almost one-click. Choose File ® Collect For Output, and you'll be prompted to Save; then a dialog box appears enabling you to choose the information to be saved in a document information page. A dialog box opens where you can name the document information file, and lets you choose where to save the information. It's best to create a new folder. When you click Save, the program pulls all the fonts and graphics used in the document, makes a copy of the live file, and places all that data in the location you set. All that's left for you to do is to put the data on a suitable media. One wacky note, though. If you have a space character in front of the name of your hard drive, Collect For Output doesn't work. Don't ask why; change the name of your hard drive.

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