Graphic designer?

RebeccaS

I seem to remember that someone on here is a graphic designer? (I can't remember who it was or I'd just send a message). I'm having a problem with illustrator that I can't find the solution to anywhere, so if anyone has any experience with the software would you mind doing a little troubleshooting for me? I hope it's OK to ask, I know it's a Buddhist forum, but I'm not finding answers on any of the design or software forums but if this isn't an appropriate topic I understand.

In CS4 (I will upgrade one day I swear ) in an RGB file I'm getting two different kinds of black - rich black in the fill and poor black for the lines. Do you know how to make them all the same? I've tried making the document greyscale, resetting the color settings, trying to match them with the dropper tool and changing the entire document to CMYK and back to RGB again. None of them have worked, and I am selecting the same black from the palette.

This is what I'm dealing with -

Any idea?

Sabre

Is the opacity the same?

RebeccaS

The opacity of the layers weren't the same actually, but I just changed them both to 100% and the colors are still rendering the same. Thanks for the tip though, much appreciated

sova

Hi, I'm on a linux box these days, but I thought I might google around since I have had a small love affair with Illustrator in the past.

http://www.techassistnow.com/2010/05/handling-problems-with-the-color-black-in-illustrator.html

Set the printing/export to "Output All Blacks as Rich Black" and if you need to you can save it to a new file, and I would think that you'd be good to go


Hope that helps, and sorry if it's totally irrelevant xD


edit: i wanna see the finished product

RebeccaS

It didn't work but thanks for taking the time to do a search!

RebeccaS

I also just tried exporting the document, c&p'ing into a new one and those didn't work either.

It's so odd, there must be a logical explanation for it.

zombiegirl

@ThailandTom has some experience with graphic design, I believe.

federica

I just think your computer's being creative....

There now! Wasn't that helpful - ?!

Bunks

Yeah - I am sure I have read posts from @ThailandTom stating he is a graphic designer

ThailandTom

Hey yea I have gone through college and university studying graphic design, your designs looks interesting by the way, I wonder what it is..

As for the issue with illustrator the layers and opacity solution have already been pointed out and that did not help, that would have been my first reaction, then as you know in ai you have two palletes, the outline and fill colour and sometimes if they are both similar shades of a colour, you can get confused with which is which by sight, but that does not seem to be the issue here. Have you held down the mouse at say the top right of the document and selected every layer/line and then dropped the shade of black onto it? You could select all of the layers, then go to 'group' so they are all one layer and try it that way if you have not done so already. It is quite strange though, sometimes strange things happen on adobe programs and it does get annoying, I know the feeling. If this doesn't help at all sorry, I will think it over some more.

RebeccaS

Thanks everyone!

@Federica - I hope it isn't being creative... I harbour robot apocolypse fears

@ThailandThom You're who I've been looking for! Yeah, I've tried all of that, none of it has worked. I've seen a few adobe glitches, rebooting usually sorts them but this one has been a real bugger. I might just have to start again Thanks so much for your help though. Oh, and it's Superman

ThailandTom

Oh superman, cool. That sucks that you may have to start all over again. Like you said it is happening for a reason so there must be a logical reason for it. I have had moments like this where I say to myself "why, why is this happening!?" I have had to resort to going on adobe forums to ask, but there isn't always an answer. Technically if you hold shift (windows) and click both lines that are of different shades they are then both grouped for that moment, then you can simple select the colour for them both, as I am sure you know. So on that basis I really have no idea what is going on. Sometimes when you carry out a design, you may do some things that you do not realise that later down the line cause issues. After using the pen tool for example, when you have finished creating your path you should hit ctrl before deselecting it so it won't interect with a different pen tool path that may come across it later. Hope you do find an answer and don't have to start again

RebeccaS

Yeah th Adobe forums weren't much help at all

I think you're right though, that I must have done something earlier to bugger it up. I've been working on it on and off for a couple of days now and can't remember the whole process to pin point where I might have gone wrong. I might have set the document up wrong or something

I reckon I'll have to start again and run through my document set up and make sure I'm not missing anything.

Bugger, eh?

Oh well, I was getting bored of Superman, I'm gonna do Spiderman

Thanks so much for the help!

ThailandTom

No problem lol. Out with the old in with the new! Just remember when you have complete a path with the pen tool to hit Ctrl before deselecting it. You may have even locked a layer somewhere along the lines... Anyway yea good luck with spidey hehe.

RebeccaS

Thanks for the tip! Cheers

Sabre

If you can upload the file somewhere, we can have a look at it. Perhaps somebody can find the issue.

ThailandTom

Sabre said:

If you can upload the file somewhere, we can have a look at it. Perhaps somebody can find the issue.

That is a good idea if you still want to continue with superman, maybe some of us can play around with it in ai..

RebeccaS

Thanks guys! I uploaded it here http://www.filefactory.com/file/6aigci036xxv/n/supermansuperman_ai

(He lost his little S because I forgot to save my work)

RebeccaS

I don't know if that's a good host or not - it was the first link that came up when I googled free file hosting. I do have drop box, but I'm not sure how it works

RebeccaS

I think I might be able to find the error in the raw data - it might have something to do with the fact that I didn't use separate artboards, but two or three different documents when I've been playing around with it. But the raw data is a few hundred lines of code.

Though looking at it, I think I might have made it worse in all my attempts to fix it. So I'm just going to put this project to bed and be more diligent next time.

But thanks for all the help guys

Mountains

I've been working in Illustrator since version 2, and making a substantial part of my living with it for over 20 years. If you drop me an email I can probably help you

jrh at pemtel.net

RebeccaS

Thanks @mountains! That's really kind I put it to bed, though and started a new project. Still not entirely sure what I did wrong, but it hasn't happened since. If it happens again I'll definitely drop you a line. Thanks again