Illustrator® CS5 Bible

Chapter 18. Understanding PostScript and Printing

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding PostScript

• Understanding the difference between composites and separations

• Determining when to use process color instead of spot color separations

• Printing separations out of Illustrator

• Understanding line screens

• Printing separations from other programs

• Understanding trapping

• Using Pathfinder Trap

• Trapping after you create an image in Illustrator

Until the mid-1980s, computer graphics were, well, crusty. Blocky. Jagged. Rough. If you looked at graphics that were done on computers in 1981 and printed to a black-and-white printer, you'd laugh so hard you couldn't breathe, stopping the laughter only when you realized that you actually could not breathe. Of course, in 1981 the world was gaga over the capabilities of computers and computer graphics. Those same pictures were admired, and the average person was generally amazed. The average designer, on the other hand, shuddered and prayed that this whole computer thing wouldn't catch on.

Desktop publishing was pushed to a level of professionalism in 1985 by a cute little software package called PageMaker. With PageMaker, you could do typesetting and layout on the computer screen, seeing everything on-screen just as it would eventually be printed. Well, almost. Aldus was the company that created PageMaker. In 1994, Adobe swallowed Aldus.

Problems aside, PageMaker would not have been a success if the laser printer hadn't handily arrived on the scene. Even so, there were ...