How to best print from Adobe Illustrator

When working with Illustrator, we recommend that you actually export to PDF and then print from Adobe Acrobat. Illustrator files are very large. Saving it as a PDF will compress your images and preserve crisp text.

Step 1

Under Window, select Links

In the Links tab, make sure there are no broken or out of-date links. If there are any red X makes, you will need to relink or update the link references

Step 2

Under File, select Save As

In the Save As window, set Save as Type to Adobe PDF

Step 3

In the Save As Adobe PDF window, set Adobe PDF Preset to [High Quality Print]

Set Compatibility to Adobe 8 (PDF 1.7)

Uncheck Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities

Under Compression, the settings are as follows

Make changes in Image Quality and ppi to achieve the desired balance of quality and file size

Press Save PDF

Finally, see the Creating an Optimized PDF KB article for the final print output.