Illustrator Effects in FrameMaker->PDF Output

[jfraher]

Here's a puzzler: I created an object using the blend tool. I then copied and pasted the object within the same illustration, which I saved as an EPS file. I then imported that file into a FrameMaker doc. When I generate a PDF, the first object turned out fine but the second one (the copied object) came out blurred and jaggy. (See the two attachments, Before.jpg and After.jpg, which are screen captures of the Illustrator image and the FrameMaker->PDF image.) I'm baffled why the same objects undergoing the same processing would end up with very different results. Does anyone have any ideas?

Along similar lines, anything to which I applied feathering or flare looked great as an Illustrator file or as a PDF saved from Illustrator (or as a PNG exported from Illustrator), but when saved as an EPS file, imported by reference into FrameMaker, and then saved as a PDF file, any elements within range of these effects became blurry and jagged. I had to back out several beautiful effects to get the illustration to come out clearer in the final PDF. Very disappointing. I'm wondering if these are known drawbacks with FrameMaker's handling of these Illustrator effects or if some genius out there knows of clever workarounds. - Joe

[prophet]

Almost looks like ur vid card is not rendering that for some reason or the Raster effects is turned down to like 3dpi in AI :) try printing to a physical printer...:confused:

[jadedragon]

I agree sometimes it look blurry on screen but prints out fine.

[jfraher]

Thanks for your suggestions. The next chance I get, I'll try printing to see if the problem has something to do with the display. The main method of delivery though will be PDF, so it still needs to look good on screen.

What's weird is that only the copied-and-pasted object on the right has a display problem while the original object on the left looks fine. Since they're identical and are treated identically during the PDF distillation process, you'd think they'd be displayed identically. It makes me wonder if the clue to the mystery lies somewhere in the copying task.

[jfraher]

When printed, the image looks the same as it does online. However, when I copied both objects out of the illustration (from which I took the screen captures posted here) and made a smaller image of just these objects on a simple background, the problem was gone. This leads me to suspect that maybe there's a memory issue. I have 1.99 GB of RAM. I wonder how much memory other Illustrator users have installed and if I should think about upgrading.

[Paths]

Have you checked here in Illustrator?:

Menu: Effect > Document Raster Effects Settings

[jfraher]

Thanks for your suggestion. Here is a screen capture of "Document Raster Effects Settings" dialog box in case it can provide a clue to the trouble. I would think that Illustrator would apply all document-level settings to everything in an illustration, but in this case, the object on the left turned out fine while the one on the right--which is an unmodified copy of the left object and appears in the same illustration--did not. However, when I copied the two objects and pasted them into a simpler illustration, they both looked fine in the final PDF. This is why I suspect there might be a memory issue here, but maybe the "Document Raster Effects Settings" will point to a different culprit.