Since Monday, I have spent 44 hours at work (I am only supposed to work 37 hours per week. oops!), and I'm still at work, and it's only Thursday. The overtime keeps piling up. I won't get paid for it, but perhaps I'll get to take a few days off and go to... Berlin? London? Amsterdam? All three?
But that's not the point. The point is, computers sometimes really suck.
The amount of work I have produced in those 44 working hours? Embarrassingly small. I am making giant maps of various contexts for an upcoming exhibition being put on by Henning Larsen. When they're done, they should be gorgeous (please oh please!), but they are about 1.5 gb a piece while I work with them in layers in photoshop, and there are 13 of them. 1.5 gb is freaking huge, for those who don't know. That's one fat file. So I wait 20 minutes just for one of the fastest computers in the office to open the file, wait 2-10 minutes each time I wait for the computer to follow through with a command, and then, an hour and a half (or more) after working some magic on the map, I try and save it.
Operative word: try
It just happened. Right now. After waiting 20 minutes for my file to save, a very rude little message popped up with a big red X on it, saying "Could not save because the document is bigger than 2 gigabytes".
Oh. Come on.
So I save as a jpg, lose all of my layers, and set myself up for further failure later. WTF technology.
FAIL.
Anyway, I've asked all over the office. No one has a recommendation for making a workable, layered file of a meter X a meter map with super high resolution small enough to work with. Thanks guys.
I'm allergic to technology. I have been my whole life. How did I end up choosing to marry a computer? I should have stuck with English. Journalism. Should have become a painter. Or a singer.
But no, instead I won't sleep tonight while I wait for my computer to stop sleeping. Unfair, dude. Real unfair.
I long for the days of hand drafting. Cartography done by pen and paper. Time consuming as it was, at least the effort you put in equaled the work produced.
And plus, things done by hand, undeniably more steazy.
I think this makes me a contemporary architectural heretic.
You claim you asked all over and yet I haven't seen ONE Facebook message or email. I'm hurt. Now I don't know if I wanna tell you that you can save larger than 2GB files in Photoshop by saving as a ".psb" file (Large Document File).
ReplyDeleteOR that you should try working with small "preview versions", recording every move you make in an automated script action (super easy, btw) so that you can transfer them over to the big file, possibly letting the script handle it overnight. *This doesn't really work if you're painting or copy/pasting stuff on manually though.*
But whatever, I've clearly faded out of your life....snivel...
One more thing, I hope you're using a 64-bit version of Photoshop. Otherwise it could take 7 times longer to open and save the file.
ReplyDeleteNow I've faded out...*goes back to drinking alone*
I was trying to ween myself off of keeping you as my own personal tech-y! But of course, I should have asked you from the start. What was I thinking?
ReplyDeleteI'm back at the office -the only one here this morning (so ronery!)and I'm sure I'll have some sort of technical difficulty once I go to finally print these bad boys. Expect a lot of questions.
Like... should I place them all in illustrator and export the pdf from there? And what's the best way to compress that PDF without losing resolution?
Weaning takes time, young grasshopper. Patience. Now as for Illustrator and printing...
ReplyDeleteMy god, PLACE them YES! I don't think Illustrator can handle large files so well (given that it hasn't been 64-bitified yet and has a 4GB RAM limit --bring back memories?). I'd also recommend doing this one page at a time.
The best way to compress the PDF, assuming you're never EVER gonna wanna edit the files again (or you could just make a copy) is to export them to a Postscript file (.ps) and use Adobe Acrobat Distiller to create the PDF. All layers and editing crap are gone and the file is the smallest it could possibly be without losing image quality.
Your biggest concern should be that the printer won't be able to process the shit-in-your-pantsastically large images. Although if I knew which printer model you're printing off of, I could just suggest that you submit a Postscript file directly to the printer so it doesn't have to do much processing.
Proof that I am super tired this morning: I meant indesign, not illustrator, for placing them all.
ReplyDeleteAnd how do I check that the programs are 64-bit? I could google that, sure, but you're just so much easier to consult!
And yes, I am doing a lot of the maps manually, otherwise I totally would have batch processed them. I'm luckily just packaging the files and sending them to a professional printer, where it'll be their problem to get them out of the computer (talking about bringing back memories... do you remember a time when I DIDN'T have trouble printing? Oy vey!).
You are my personal Jesus, no doubt. Technology Jesus. RoboJesus? Raise your hand if I've just offended you.
As far as I'm aware, only Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and After Effects are 64-bit. The rest of CS5 are still 32-bit and limited to 4GB of RAM per app. You actually did good by saving the giant images as JPEGS (assuming you don't need to edit them). Do this for use in InDesign. I don't know if your printer requires CMYK colors (colors of ink) vs the RGB (colors of light) you're probably using in Photoshop so you might have to switch color modes and adjust the contrast a little. Check with the printer or your supervisor (so you don't get blamed for 'dull' colors in print).
ReplyDeleteThe placing thing still applies to InDesign with the addition of don't ever turn on "high performance display" in view settings. The preview will look splotchy pixelated, but your final output will be fine. Now onto what happens when you're done...
To export to a Postscript file, go to File>Print (sounds weird, yes?). Then select "Postscript File" as your printer. It will be a bit of a wait if your images are really that big. When it's done open Acrobat Distiller (somewhere in the acrobat folder where your apps are). Change the Default Settings to "PDF/X-3:2002" (it's an industry standard print PDF format). Then go to Settings>Edit Adobe PDF Settings. At the bottom of that pop up window, enter the paper size EXACTLY as you want it (if it's landscape, the width should be greater than the height).
Also for future reference, I prefer Hi-Tech Jesus. Dirty looking thorny crowns just aren't my thing. My crown will be polished and chrome plated.