emailing plot files, cont.

logistics, logistics, logistics

Glen Klym asked:

I was recently in a pinch for time to get a number of drawings to a client in another city, and attempted to send files as email attachments to a service provider for plotting. I know that if they had offered reasonable Mac support that I could have sent PDF files, however it was not an option.

They did however suggest that I send them TIFF files which in theory could be sent directly to their PC plotter. With little time to experiment, and hoping for the best, I exported my drawings from PowerCADD to TIFF's and fired them off. The poor fellow at the service beureau then proceeded to try opening the attachments, resulting in numerous crashes at his end. Ultimately, I had to resort to plotting locally, and having the drawings rushed out via courier the next day.

Can anyone recommend a solution for future reference?

Bo suggested using pdfs:

You can send pdf files to any platform from the Mac and the recipient can view and/or print/plot them as with any other application that can create a pdf file. Hence, pdf is preferred as long as the quality of the output is OK for the use.

MacOS X lets you create pdf files 'for free' from the print command if you have 'carbonized' or 'cocoa' applications that run inside OS X.

I routinely send pdfs from A size to E size and have never had a problem with either sending to a Mac or a PC user.

Phil Loheed posted:

We have had very good luck sending TIFF files to PC's especially for hi-resolution printing such as leasing brochures -- when the recipient will use Pagemaker, Quark, Photoshop, Canvas or Illustrator to format the image for the printer.

A few do's and don'ts that seemed to help:

DO carefully format the image in PowerCADD to avoid excess space, and use the "drawing Page" export option. DO use PwerCADD's TIFF export with "packbits" enabled -- this is very efficient, many of our images have compressed about 40:1! DO experiment with various resolutions to get the quality desired for the output size intended. DO use ZIPIT to make the attachment archive (which may contain more than one image if necessary). This will also further reduce the file size as much as 60% (For example, we have created about 40 MB images that become 1 MB files as exported; then found that ZIPIT was able to reduce that 1MB to 400K as emailed. I was impressed! DO make sure to review ZIPIT's preferences carefully to ensure that only PC format procedures are used (avoid Mac-only bit order, etc.) DO NOT attach more than one file per emial. (As noted, a single archive may contain more than one image.) In some situations, multiple attachments come through with "corrupted file tags" and cannot be opened at the PC (**#GRRRR###***) end. DO NOT modify the TIFF image in Photoshop or other image editors -- if you do, the compressed file size will become very large. This is really too bad, since we sometimes add "noise" or effects to an image in Photoshop, but have learned to avoid this when file size is an issue during email travails...

Hope ou have better luck in future. The comments about PDF from BO and others are true, but I find it hard to maintain precise control for high-resolution work using PDF.

We just sent four of these files this morning for an "on-screen" client review (they are using Photoshop). These were 42MB files that compressed to 546K for emailing -- this still boggles my mind...

A few additional points about TIF files and our ways of using them:

I like to draw at a larger scale than the intended output to provide a "sharper" look to our drawings. For example, we will often create floor plans at 1/2" = 1'-0", but print at 50% (1/4" = 1'-0") size; or draw at 40 scale for 50 scale output; etc.

The drawings sent this morning were 4x8 foot PowerCADD drawings, normally printed as a 2x4 foot print. To get good resolution for a brochure with 11x17 inch pages, with each drawing as a two page spread (11x34 inch image); we export to TIF at 50 dpi -- giving about 200 dpi resolution in the books which worked well for laser-copied output.

Gradients come through very well on these drawings.

TIFF files allow very large image dimensions, and do not have the arbitrary limits seen in PICT format.

Someone named Bill suggested:

Never use a NEW or unknown service provider (or any other print house) for anything when a deadline or critical job exists. Ninety-five percent of the people here have probably been bitten by an untested service provider.

New, unknown printer, and critical job should not exist in the same sentence.

My experience is that new print services always have a few wrinkles to be ironed out. Experience dealing with the print house is mandatory before relying on the output. Brochures, documentation, Word documents, fonts, versions of PageMaker/Word and other software are among the thousands of different ways the output can be messed up. Once ES spent six weeks with a familiar printing service (documentation related) to avoid reduced resolution graphics. The printer eventually returned his very expensive updated software to Xerox.

Thanks.

Bill Stanley

Got another technique? send it in.