Adobe illustrator 10 Manuale Utente

Whether you are providing multicolored artwork to an outside service bureau or just 
sending a quick draft of a drawing to an inkjet or laser printer, knowing a few basics about 
printing will make the print job go more smoothly and help ensure that the finished 
artwork appears as intended.

Types of printing When you print a file, the Adobe Illustrator program sends it to a 
printing device, either to be printed directly onto paper, to a digital printing press, or to be 
converted to a positive or negative image on film. In the latter case, the film can then be 
used to create a master plate for printing by a mechanical press.

Types of images The simplest types of images, such as a page of text, use only one color 
in one level of gray. A more complex image is one whose color tones vary within the 
image. This type of image is known as a continuous-tone image. A scanned photograph is 
an example of a continuous-tone image.

Halftoning To create the illusion of continuous tone when printed, images are broken 
down into a series of dots. This process is called halftoning. Varying the sizes and densities 
of the dots in a halftone screen creates the optical illusion of variations of gray or 
continuous color in the image. 

Color separation Artwork that will be commercially reproduced and that contains more 
than a single color must be printed on separate master plates, one for each color. This 
process is called color separation.

Getting detail The detail in a printed image results from a combination of resolution and 
screen frequency. The higher an output device’s resolution, the finer (higher) a screen 
ruling you can use. (See 

.) 

Transparency If the artwork contains transparency, it will be flattened according to 
settings in the Document Setup dialog box. Using the Quality/Speed slider, you can affect 
the ratio of rasterized versus vector images in the printed artwork. (See 

You can choose from a set of standard printing options in Adobe Illustrator for any type of 
artwork you print. These printing options appear in the Print Setup > Properties dialog box 
(Windows) or Page Setup (Mac OS) dialog box. You can then print the artwork using the 
Print dialog box. 

If you are making color separations, you can print a color or grayscale composite proof to 
check your work. A composite image can help you to design and proof your artwork 
before printing final (and costly) separations. When Illustrator prints a composite, it prints 
all of the colors used in the file on one plate.