Adobe Illustrator, PS drivers, and C652's.

[Phrag]

Hi guys.

I had an issue with a customer's C652. It was stuck in a cycle of "flashing data light > frozen control panel > reboot" Every 2 minutes it would repeat this cycle.

I very quickly narrowed it down to a network issue. From there I narrowed it down to a particular computer, and from there found the cause.

Adobe Illustrator.

In the print queue of the PS driver, there were 5 largish files causing the machine to reboot (somehow).

I updated the PS driver. That didn't fix it. I then increased the network timeout in print settings on the web interface to 240 seconds. In addition to that, I had a play around in the print dialogue in Illustrator. I noticed a warning about layers needing to be flattened. In the graphics section of the print dialogue I found a slider that dictates "Flatness" quality. It was set to "Automatic". I unchecked the "Automatic" box and moved the slider all the way down, away from "Quality", to "Speed" on the far right.

Instant results. The single page 'Ai' file (350MB in the queue) took 2-3 minutes to spool completely, and another 1 minute or so to be received by the printer. It printed flawlessly in my eyes. I even tested printing the same file with the PCL driver, but that only produced a PCL XL error; which didn't surprise me at all actually.

My question is, (as I'm no senior tech yet. I've only had 2 years experience in the copier industry) what can cause the machine to get stuck in a reboot cycle when extremely large PS files are being sent?

From what I understand, programs like illustrator use vector based graphics which can be extremely complex. Is it that the machine runs out of memory which causes it to reboot itself?

[emujo]

Re: Adobe Illustrator, PS drivers, and C652's.

Very good question, one that deserves an answer....also one that I can't answer. That being said, there are 3 things to keep in mind when you are hoping an update will fix the problem, the driver version are usually paired with a firmware update, and you can check the specs on the PDF that comes with the firmware file (that's 2 BTW), and keeping the application updated as well. Microsoft certifies the 1st, and sometimes the last updated version of the driver, but usually nothing in between. That's why you get a "not signed" message when installing new versions of the same driver. This means they weren't tested and may not function properly with the Apps. There are spool settings you can change on the driver to get most of the crunching done at the workstation which may help. It's better to use the PS driver with graphic intensive programs (which it seems you are using). The Fiery is also a good option for issues like this. Emujo

[Phrag]

Re: Adobe Illustrator, PS drivers, and C652's.

There are spool settings you can change on the driver to get most of the crunching done at the workstation which may help...

After I got back to the office, I did a little bit of digging and found that postscript passthrough can be turned on (or off. I don't remember) to bypass some issues. Similar story with Print as Image.

[TheOwl]

Re: Adobe Illustrator, PS drivers, and C652's.

You want to try Postscript Passthrough turned off.

I have seen another issue with AI in that an option called "Pre-Flight" was enabled. This in it self was causing a very similar issue to what you are experiencing, but I have only played with AI on a Mac, so I don't know if this feature is also available on the PC version of AI.

[qbert69]

Re: Adobe Illustrator, PS drivers, and C652's.

Key Phrase--> "Large-ish Files"

The printer has no need for "layers" as are used in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and other such programs that use layers for object access and manipulation.

What I would do before printing, would be to make a copy of the file, then "flatten the file" --all layers are combined into one layer for printing....or save the file as a PDF ready for press, which pretty much does the same thing, except for your fonts which might be included in the PDF container.

As a note, when layers are used, you can multiply the file size per layer by how many layers you have and it will give you a rough estimate how big the .psd document is going to be!

e.g.-- 10 Layers x 10 Megabytes per layer = 100 Megabytes total approximately!

[slimslob]

Re: Adobe Illustrator, PS drivers, and C652's.

Key Phrase--> "Large-ish Files"

The printer has no need for "layers" as are used in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and other such programs that use layers for object access and manipulation.

What I would do before printing, would be to make a copy of the file, then "flatten the file" --all layers are combined into one layer for printing....or save the file as a PDF ready for press, which pretty much does the same thing, except for your fonts which might be included in the PDF container.

As a note, when layers are used, you can multiply the file size per layer by how many layers you have and it will give you a rough estimate how big the .psd document is going to be!

e.g.-- 10 Layers x 10 Megabytes per layer = 100 Megabytes total approximately!

Some programs actually give you the option to "Flatten the file" on the printer selection page. I had a customer who was a realtor. He would print a flier with photographs of all the properties he was listing. He would print them one page at a time to the document server. He could then assemble copies from the document server as he needed them. When there were changes to a page, he would resend just the page(s) that were changed.