best file format for large format printing

can I please get some opinions on formats for large format printing? Initially I used EPS, the downside is that EPS dose not produce a Thumbnail usable in windows, so we moved over to PDF which allows great preview capabilities and small file size but is not 100% reliable and sometimes elements with transparency are not exported, or printed incorrectly, or even a font attached to a path did not get exported. Now I am using JPG and hope that will work proper however the export time and file size is huge. I do need CMYK and realy would like to keep the vector file for spotcolours used in the printer. Any other experiences or recommendations? or are there plans to get the PDF export 100% working out of corel draw. the same problems exist in version 7

Thanks for your input

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David Milisock over 9 years ago

Your question is a good one and the answer depends on the destination. We produce quite a bit of wide format and purchase a good deal more. Color space is not super critical but I prefer to send tagged RGB files when ever possible. CMYK tagged files are ask for some times, in either situation I always send flattened TIF files, resolution for dye sublimation usually is 100 PPI, for other grand format we have tested and achieved good results with 125 & 150ppi. For up close banner stands some times we use 200 PPI. I only send PDF files that I have personally manually flattened and use fonts that I am positive that will embed. The advantage of PDF is vector and raster in the same file which improves the view of small objects up close.

You can test the fonts by opening the PDF on a system that has no fonts installed, or at least does not have any fonts used I. the file installed.
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langer198 over 9 years ago in reply to David Milisock

starting from the top,
Mike, the render complex fill as bitmaps is ticked, when is a complex fill a complex fill? what makes it complex?
I would have assumed a transparency is complex.

Ross, some of the problems seam to be in the RIP but others are straight out of corel where elements are just bluntly missing.

Ariel, I actually had better experience with EPS, biggest issue there is no thumbnail or preview. (not easy anyway) that was the reason to try PDF.

David, we use it for dyesub of clothing where we adjust the graphic for every size and often enough have to include variable data like names and numbers (for this reason is the simple preview handy so you can check easily you got the right file).
My experience is that 150 dpi is usually sufficient as the structure of most fabrics dose not allow much more anyway, only when we print maps on a fine highcount fabric we use 300DPI. The images we print are obviously always front back and two sleeves so roughly 1.5-2 sqm. In the close future we start to use special colours like orange, blue fluorecent magenta and fluorecent yellow + of course the standard colours which in this case wil be extra strong and not "normal" so no standard profile will work. As it is 8 colours we will need to use named spotcolours and define our own colourspace ( looking forward to that challenge.
Spotcolours of course work better with vector. at present I am trialing jpg. what is the comparison between jpg and tif.
I try to work in CMYK as much as possible and dont use any profiles. this way I have a direct control of the colour and the colour mix is more understandable to me. if my print is to blue i can simply take some cyan out and roughly know what will happen. Further more I will not, by mistake, use colours which are outside the printable spectrum.

The thing which bums me of is that PDF would tick the most boxes for suitability apart from being unpredictable unreliable.
EPS would be next best but has no preview.
Just a thought, anybody any experience with how a CDR file would work in adobe distiller? I could automatically safe as CDR and have it converted in distiller.

Many Thanks
Ingo
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