Clipart Questions; Best Format, uploading, etc

We are working with thousands of clipart here that we are going to want to add to our designer.

First, I'm wondering about the best format. The files we have are .eps but range in the 200k range for file size. Multiply that by ten or twenty thousand and it seems like a lot of storage etc. Should I be converting these to .png or something?


Once we are ready to upload the clipart, did I read correctly somewhere that it could be hosted on our own server somehow? Or does it need to be uploaded to RTD? Is there a way for me to perform the mass uploading to RTD server?

Thanks for any help.

EPS is the best - check your settings though. You don't need to include font definitions and a buch of other junk that is often embedded in the files by default. Vector files are often just 50K or so.

We can do a mass upload for you - experiment with the files and be sure that your library is ready to go. We charge by the hour for the upload (we do it at night to avoid server overload during prime time). There is no way to host the files on your own server. There has been a reduction in the storage fees for clipart - it is now 1 cent per MB per month.

And remember . . . eps files . . . when users change the colors in the designer . . . the downloaded pdf files WILL NOT have the color changes. You have to manually change them in your software while comparing to the low res jpg or png version.

svg on the other hand retains the color changes, but for the life of me I cannot recall right now the downside of using svg, but we've settled on eps as the format of choice.

Hard day today.

Thanks guys! Will work on organizing and reducing the file sizes. .eps it is...

One super silly thing, but that could save you much time:
Before doing mass edits of your EPS files, make sure thney will work properly.
This simply means to try uploading some of your EPS file into your RTD library, as it's better to spot possible issues before spending hours in fixing them later.

When we perform mass updates, we do not check result: we basically "trust" your files are ok, that's your responsibility.
Main tests my experience would suggest to do are:

1) verify that your files are always cropped to edges. White or transparent space may look fine while the clipart is used in designer, but would give wrong results in every hires generation (as for hires the original EPS is used "as is" )

2) make sure you're saving with transparency support (should be postscript level 3), otherwise your clips in RTD may show black or other unwanted colors instead of the transparent areas

3) once you have uploaded and verified some EPS files that should cover the kind of images you plan to mass upload, be sure to create also a test order by using them, and check the hires result. The main issue you want to avoid is size issues like the one described in #1, so this test is probably the most important one to perform properly.
So, do not try advanced effects like archs or recolors: just the cliparts, and some resized variation by using the basic designer's resize tools



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2012 11:05AM by Alex.

Very good ideas Alex, thank you! test test test!

As I referenced this thread to various users asking similar questions, I decided to moce it directly in the howtos section.
Easier to be found here

Just so you know, adobe products tend to add a little bit of bloat to the file size. We were able to get most of our clip art down to under 10k each by saving from Illustrator as an svg and then opening the file in Inkscape (free program) and saving as an eps.

cos Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
And remember . . . eps files . . . when users change the colors in the designer . . . the downloaded pdf files WILL NOT have the color changes. You have to manually change them in your software while comparing to the low res jpg or png version.

svg on the other hand retains the color changes, but for the life of me I cannot recall right now the downside of using svg, but we've settled on eps as the format of choice.
-------------------------------------------------------

Just to update . . . this behavior was changed at a later date. Downloaded hires pdf files WILL now have the color changes for eps and svg. So either is now perfectly good to use.