I'm hoping to use a Vistaprint template that is an ".ai" file. I can open it now problem in inkscape but I'm a bit confused by the size of the template.
The template is for 8.5" x 11" Bi-fold brochure and the template includes the guidelines for the bleed and trim size.
Document Trim Size
279 x 216 mm 3294 x 2550 pixels
Full Bleed Size
282 x 219 mm 3329 x 2585 pixels
When I open it in Inkscape the full bleed size in inches is 8.62 x 10.994 which is correct, but when I change the units to pixels it says it's 827.52 x 1055.41 which is nowhere near the 2585 x 3329 that it's supposed to be.
Now I'll be the first person to admit that I'm a complete noob, but why is there such a discrepency? What am I missing?
You are not missing anything as per se. However with full certainity we can only point out the source ot the error by looking at the mentioned file.
Some background.
Inkscape uses the svg format as it's foundation and tries to be the most compilant with its specs.
Illustrator, which produces the .ai file is proprietary. The ai format itself -with the defaul settings at least- has the drawing stored in an embedded pdf file.
Inkscape can open ai files by only taking out the pdf. Meaning you can come across ai files not opening in inkscape which were saved without the pdf doubles.
Ghostscript is used for importing pdf files into inkscape. The pdf itself is not an editing format but to be used directly for printing.
Thus there may occure some unexpected or rather unvelcomed problems in the conversations.
The quirks are:
text object may be kerned randomly and better retyped when needs text editing
if there was a raster image with transparency it could get converted to two separate raster images, one masking the other
the object grouping structure are consisting of nested and clipped groups beyond human reasons.
These themselves may not have nothing to do with the document's size as we'd need to see what's going on in your file.
Illustrator can also save to svg files however as it's not their target format they are not so keen on making those neat as in the svg specs.
Svg-s can be set up in a wide range. Inkscape stores the size of the objects in coordinates in "user units", which doesn't have a phisical size by themself.
Instead, in the very beginning of the svg document in its codes a unit is defined upon which the user units should be scaled upon rendering.
Sort of like how fonts are rendered in a text object.
Now, to be even more confusing, illustrator is hard-wired to 72 dpi and inkscape is to 96 dpi.
Thus, if you draw the same length in illustrator and inkscape respectively in mm, then switching to px in the measurement value, you should see that the inkscape versions offers more pixels.
You cannot change the default 96 dpi.
In the document settings (Shift+Ctrl+D) you can set up the svg-s size and viewbox values.
Most extensions were developed assuming the viewbox equals the document size, and 1 user units = px.
As mentioned before, the core of your document is "user units". You can set up a document so that these user units mean the right mm values. Yet it doesn't imply anything besides.
If you define the drawing in mm values, you can set up a scale factor so that the user units are matching with the px values within illustrator but that's rather not recommended.
If you aim for printing, the correct physical units should be mandatory.
When saving as pdf for printing, the actual size will be printed and not a theoretical px size. And since these are mainly vector files, there shouldn't be any unwanted pixelation.
Sorry it seems I was also missing much on your original post.
The first question is wether they will need a pdf or a raster image prepared within their template from you with cutmarks, folding lines etc.
or just a raster image that has the full bleed size.
If I was to print at the highest accuracy on the size and resolution, I'd like to receive a pdf file with a vector content.
All in the actual size of the final deliverable, measured in physical units. Then px size doesn't matter much.
If they are printing from raster images, then you'd need an exported png as the final image in their given px size which is rather unlikely.
Px size is the core of pixelart and interface design where everything is better screen fitted so that objects are rendered sharp and not smudged by anti-aliasing.
If printing a raster image, the larger the px size the better or rather the higher the resolution the better. Like this case, they'd print 3294 px on 279 mm, which is about 300 dpi.
That resolution -px density- is used commonly for printing books, but photographs are considered to be printed at 600 dpi. (Much depends on the printing paper too because a cheap paper won't hold the ink that accurately.)
If I wanted to print a brochure on an A4 paper I'd recreate all the contents in the bleed area and add cutmarks and whatnot.
Sounds as if they are printing from raster files of the bleed area which are exactly 3329 x 2585 px sized, which they will put in their A4 template with all the printing marks.
Note the size differences. 8.5" x 11" is the size of a regular A4 paper, and 3329 x 2585 pixels is the full bleed size which is smaller than the page.
If that's the case you can select the right area in your template file and export it in the requested px size.
Probably I'd still use the actual sizes and mm as a display unit but if it's confusing you can still set up a document so that the display unit is mm, the scale factor is 1 and the document size is 3329/2585 px,
then just export the page area when finished at the default 96 dpi.
When I open it in Inkscape the full bleed size in inches is 8.62 x 10.994 which is correct, but when I change the units to pixels it says it's 827.52 x 1055.41 which is nowhere near the 2585 x 3329 that it's supposed to be.
It could be you have the Scale set wrongly in Document Properties. Could also be related to the different native resolution between Adobe and Inkscape. Or both.
Their 8.5" x 11" Bi-fold brochure requires I send them a document that is specifically 3329 x 2585 pixels. What do I have to do in Inkscape to ensure that the file I send them is indeed the right size?
Set Document Properties > Page tab > Display Units (at the very top) to px
Page size > Custom size: set Width = 3329, and Height = 2585, and Units to px
Set Scale > 1.0
If you still haven't solved the problem by now, please feel free to share the SVG file.
It's fine. You do not need to use 300dpi inside Inkscape - Inkscape uses 96 px per inch per default, and that does not make a difference, as long as the physical size is given correctly in the document settings.
I suppose you will export to pdf or as a PNG image?
The pdf will use the physical size you told Inkscape (i.e. the size in mm, or in inch). Which is correct for the print service.
The PNG will use both the size in mm/inch and the resolution (300dpi). There it will tell you an identical pixel value. And that exported image will also have the correct dimensions.
BTW.... I just wanted to thank everyone again. My brochure arrived from Vistaprint and it looks perfect. I couldn't have done it without everyone help.
Beginners' Questions Vistaprint ai. Template Size Help
Inkscape.org
Hello all,
I'm hoping to use a Vistaprint template that is an ".ai" file. I can open it now problem in inkscape but I'm a bit confused by the size of the template.
The template is for 8.5" x 11" Bi-fold brochure and the template includes the guidelines for the bleed and trim size.
When I open it in Inkscape the full bleed size in inches is 8.62 x 10.994 which is correct, but when I change the units to pixels it says it's 827.52 x 1055.41 which is nowhere near the 2585 x 3329 that it's supposed to be.
Now I'll be the first person to admit that I'm a complete noob, but why is there such a discrepency? What am I missing?
Hi.
You are not missing anything as per se. However with full certainity we can only point out the source ot the error by looking at the mentioned file.
Some background.
Inkscape uses the svg format as it's foundation and tries to be the most compilant with its specs.
Illustrator, which produces the .ai file is proprietary. The ai format itself -with the defaul settings at least- has the drawing stored in an embedded pdf file.
Inkscape can open ai files by only taking out the pdf. Meaning you can come across ai files not opening in inkscape which were saved without the pdf doubles.
Ghostscript is used for importing pdf files into inkscape. The pdf itself is not an editing format but to be used directly for printing.
Thus there may occure some unexpected or rather unvelcomed problems in the conversations.
The quirks are:
These themselves may not have nothing to do with the document's size as we'd need to see what's going on in your file.
Illustrator can also save to svg files however as it's not their target format they are not so keen on making those neat as in the svg specs.
Svg-s can be set up in a wide range. Inkscape stores the size of the objects in coordinates in "user units", which doesn't have a phisical size by themself.
Instead, in the very beginning of the svg document in its codes a unit is defined upon which the user units should be scaled upon rendering.
Sort of like how fonts are rendered in a text object.
Now, to be even more confusing, illustrator is hard-wired to 72 dpi and inkscape is to 96 dpi.
Thus, if you draw the same length in illustrator and inkscape respectively in mm, then switching to px in the measurement value, you should see that the inkscape versions offers more pixels.
You cannot change the default 96 dpi.
In the document settings (Shift+Ctrl+D) you can set up the svg-s size and viewbox values.
Most extensions were developed assuming the viewbox equals the document size, and 1 user units = px.
As mentioned before, the core of your document is "user units". You can set up a document so that these user units mean the right mm values. Yet it doesn't imply anything besides.
If you define the drawing in mm values, you can set up a scale factor so that the user units are matching with the px values within illustrator but that's rather not recommended.
If you aim for printing, the correct physical units should be mandatory.
When saving as pdf for printing, the actual size will be printed and not a theoretical px size. And since these are mainly vector files, there shouldn't be any unwanted pixelation.
Thanks for your very detailed response. To be honest I'm still very much lost.
Maybe we can approach this from a different angle. Let's forget the VistaPrint template that was in the form of the ".ai" file.
Let's say I'm starting from scratch and I want to do the following:
What do I have to do in Inkscape to ensure that the file I send them is indeed the right size?
Sorry it seems I was also missing much on your original post.
The first question is wether they will need a pdf or a raster image prepared within their template from you with cutmarks, folding lines etc.
or just a raster image that has the full bleed size.
If I was to print at the highest accuracy on the size and resolution, I'd like to receive a pdf file with a vector content.
All in the actual size of the final deliverable, measured in physical units. Then px size doesn't matter much.
If they are printing from raster images, then you'd need an exported png as the final image in their given px size which is rather unlikely.
Px size is the core of pixelart and interface design where everything is better screen fitted so that objects are rendered sharp and not smudged by anti-aliasing.
If printing a raster image, the larger the px size the better or rather the higher the resolution the better. Like this case, they'd print 3294 px on 279 mm, which is about 300 dpi.
That resolution -px density- is used commonly for printing books, but photographs are considered to be printed at 600 dpi. (Much depends on the printing paper too because a cheap paper won't hold the ink that accurately.)
If I wanted to print a brochure on an A4 paper I'd recreate all the contents in the bleed area and add cutmarks and whatnot.
Sounds as if they are printing from raster files of the bleed area which are exactly 3329 x 2585 px sized, which they will put in their A4 template with all the printing marks.
Note the size differences. 8.5" x 11" is the size of a regular A4 paper, and 3329 x 2585 pixels is the full bleed size which is smaller than the page.
bleed area vs. trim size vs. safe area
If that's the case you can select the right area in your template file and export it in the requested px size.
Probably I'd still use the actual sizes and mm as a display unit but if it's confusing you can still set up a document so that the display unit is mm, the scale factor is 1 and the document size is 3329/2585 px,
then just export the page area when finished at the default 96 dpi.
When your US Letter template is exported to PNG at 300 dpi, the pixel dimension is 3329 x 2586.
I have attached the exported PNG.
It could be you have the Scale set wrongly in Document Properties. Could also be related to the different native resolution between Adobe and Inkscape. Or both.
If you still haven't solved the problem by now, please feel free to share the SVG file.
https://www.vistaprint.com/product-presentation-info.aspx?productConceptId=295#
It's fine. You do not need to use 300dpi inside Inkscape - Inkscape uses 96 px per inch per default, and that does not make a difference, as long as the physical size is given correctly in the document settings.
I suppose you will export to pdf or as a PNG image?
The pdf will use the physical size you told Inkscape (i.e. the size in mm, or in inch). Which is correct for the print service.
The PNG will use both the size in mm/inch and the resolution (300dpi). There it will tell you an identical pixel value. And that exported image will also have the correct dimensions.
THANKS SOOOOOOO MUCH, for all the replies.
BTW.... I just wanted to thank everyone again. My brochure arrived from Vistaprint and it looks perfect. I couldn't have done it without everyone help.