13 replies to this topic

[Raizer]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to ArcMap/GIS/Autocad in general but I am learning on the job. I've been having problems when exporting a large map to PDF that when it comes to the PDF file , some of the polygons of buildings are coming out uneven and the quality of it just looks bad. Also some of my line features disappear as well. I have tried increasing the DPI and so far 525 looks about right. Ratio is 1:3, Destination Colorspace: RGB, Image Compression: Adaptive , JPEG Qual. is at 80, Picture Symbol: Vectorize layers, unchecked everything , Advanced Tab: Layers and Attributes : None. Sorry if this is a simple mistake or something. Thanks again for the help/feedback! Hope to learn much.

Very Respectfully,

Dan

P.S. I forgot to add I am using ArcMap 10

Edited by Raizer, 03 February 2012 - 10:43 PM.

[David Medeiros]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to ArcMap/GIS/Autocad in general but I am learning on the job. I've been having problems when exporting a large map to PDF that when it comes to the PDF file , some of the polygons of buildings are coming out uneven and the quality of it just looks bad. Also some of my line features disappear as well. I have tried increasing the DPI and so far 525 looks about right. Ratio is 1:3, Destination Colorspace: RGB, Image Compression: Adaptive , JPEG Qual. is at 80, Picture Symbol: Vectorize layers, unchecked everything , Advanced Tab: Layers and Attributes : None. Sorry if this is a simple mistake or something. Thanks again for the help/feedback! Hope to learn much.

Very Respectfully,

Dan

P.S. I forgot to add I am using ArcMap 10

Arc has a fairly poor PDF export engine. You might do better exporting as EPS then converting to PDF in Adobe Distiller if you have it. If not you can try a higher DPI setting, like 1400 or more. Arc has s strange way of handling line vectors on export and the quality of the lines isa function of the DPI setting and page scale. So low DPI and zoomed out means very coarse lines around curves and corners. The pdf linked below has a little more detail on this plus other Arc export information. See if that helps at all.


http://www.sonic.net..._...c to AI.pdf

[Raizer]

Thanks for the help so far David Medeiros. Sad to say my options on exporting from ArcMap to other formats are limited to JPEG/PDF. I tried putting it at 1400 and it still has deleted features such as lines. I also forgot to add that I have a couple layers transparent at 45%. It is best that I leave the 2 specific layers on transparent as I need it for the map. I read the link above and it's some pretty neat stuff with the ai. format.

P.S. I have it on a scale of 1:2700.

Edited by Raizer, 03 February 2012 - 11:20 PM.

[P.Raposo]

Hi Raizer,

Unfortunately, Arc's rendering engine on export to PDF does rather poorly with transparent vector layers. In my experience, it rasterizes everything from the transparent vector layer and below into a single, flat layer, and doesn't do a very good job drawing it either. I've heard of an alternative Arc > PDF drawing engine from a company called TerraGo that apparently exports transparent vectors very well, but that would be an expensive option.

Are you sure you can only export to jpg or pdf? Normally Arc gives you several file format options.

Cheers,
P

[greg585]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to ArcMap/GIS/Autocad in general but I am learning on the job. I've been having problems when exporting a large map to PDF that when it comes to the PDF file , some of the polygons of buildings are coming out uneven and the quality of it just looks bad. Also some of my line features disappear as well. I have tried increasing the DPI and so far 525 looks about right. Ratio is 1:3, Destination Colorspace: RGB, Image Compression: Adaptive , JPEG Qual. is at 80, Picture Symbol: Vectorize layers, unchecked everything , Advanced Tab: Layers and Attributes : None. Sorry if this is a simple mistake or something. Thanks again for the help/feedback! Hope to learn much.

Very Respectfully,

Dan

P.S. I forgot to add I am using ArcMap 10

I recently had some issues exporting from ArcGIS to PDF and printing, the colours were looking very different. Got in contact with Esri support and they sent me this:

http://www.ungiwg.or...ks/cmyk_rgb.pdf

and told me to work in CMKY

[Raizer]

@Greg585

The link you gave me was useful information for me to use but it didn't help the map from export to PDF :|

@P.Raposo

Yeah the Air Force sadly, only can accept files PDF or JPEG. We don't have Adobe Illustrator or any of the useful programs.

Thanks again all for the advice so far, I'm still looking to correct this issue though..

[frax]

I hate to not have full control over any simplification of vectors, so I always punch in a ridiculonk amount in the dpi box, to make sure that I get the full detail of the vectors. Then I can decide if I should simplify in Arc or in e.g. Illustrator/Acrobat.

[Raizer]

Hm.. It seems as if Adobe Illustrator is a must have program haha.

[P.Raposo]

Hi Raizer,
Illustrator is quite popular, but consider open source options as well. I've never used it, but apparently you could import from many of Arc's export formats (e.g., .ai) into Inkscape, and then export to PDF. Might be worth a look, and might solve your graphical quality issues.
Cheers,
P

[Matthew Hampton]

I recently had some issues exporting from ArcGIS to PDF and printing, the colours were looking very different. Got in contact with Esri support and they sent me this:

http://www.ungiwg.or...ks/cmyk_rgb.pdf

and told me to work in CMKY

From my experiences I would not use a CMYK colorspace with ArcGIS. Arc's native colorspace is RGB and their RGB-->CMYK conversion produces unacceptable colorshifting. I use Adobe products to convert from RGB-->CMYK when it matters. When it doesn't, I get better results with the conversion during the RIP on the printer/plotter.

The transparency is solved in Illustrator (export layers with no transparency - then adjust in AI). However if that's not an option, keep your dpi settings high and use a factor of 72 (I typically use 1440). You might try exporting a jpeg and convert that to a PDF.

Regardless, I always re-save the PDF's I export from ArcGIS in Acrobat. For some reason (un-optimized code?) the file sizes shrink considerably and perform better (re-draw, etc.). It adds a step in the process, but you end up with a better product.

[Raizer]

@Matthew

I always use RGB now. The problem is the Air Force doesn't want to get / buy Adobe Illustrator for us and our computers aren't really the best but more like the most minimum budget wise we could get. We don't even have a real graphics card , it's an integrated one from 2003 discontinued now. Every time I put the DPI settings high , I always lose certain objects such as lines or something any idea why ? It's the same thing with a JPEG as well if i put DPI too high on that it will also lose certain features. Thanks again

[Matthew Hampton]

@Matthew
The problem is the Air Force. We don't even have a real graphics card...

I am pretty sure you have already found your problem.

[frax]

If you are not able to get proper tools for the tasks, I would seriously consider finding another job...

[katzmoye]

I have also lost data or text or found really strange artifacts when exporting to pdf. Some things help (though not always):

1) remove any data not viewed in the final product
2) UNGROUP. Anything and everything, including base layers provided by ESRI (imagery, topo, etc).

Sometimes it's the little things . . .