Password secured Illustrator files and Printer

[khawaib]

Hi,

I am new to illustrator work but have been and working in photoshop a lot. I did some art work and saved it as password secured files for editing, also unchecked the editing check boxes in save dialogue box. When I sent the files to printer they said to me that they need the password to do corrections and to improve the quality of art work.

My question is: Do the printer really need the password to improve the quality or he is just trying to get his hands on my original files as they do designing work as well.

Looking forward to experts replies,

Thanks

[TORCH511]

More than likely your artwork is NOT set up correctly for printing. Not trying to comment on your skills as an artist/designer or anything.

Unless you set up the artwork exactly to the printers specifications then chances are they need to do some pre-press work in order to make your art print correctly. This is quite normal especially if you are having the job printed conventially i.e. offset, flexo, screen etc.

I wouldn't be so concerned about using password-protected files. Most reputable printers are not going to copy your work, and if they really wanted it, there are ways around the illustrator security anyway.

[eugenetyson]

There are a lot of things that the illustrator file needs to be set up properly, like the colours need to be trapped, knocked out, overprinted, spread, choked in all the right places.

It needs bleed, cmyk images, embeded fonts, perhaps even outline fonts, perhaps they need to increase the Document Raster Effects to a higher PPI or even change the bleed settings, get rid of spot colours, insert spot colours etc.

Illustrator files need a lot of care and attention. Be thankful that the printer is doing this for you.

There is a thing though, if they do the changes then they will charge you an hourly rate for prepress work.

You should ask them for a list of changes they require and you make them yourself and resend the file.

But honestly they may need the password to just make a pdf from the file or place in a layout package to export to pdf, or even just to get the eps/pdf or whatever you supplied through their computers RIP.

There's lots of reasons why they want your password and all of them are to help you.

As torch said, if they really wanted your layout there are methods to bypass the security.

First step is to find out why they want the password, and the second step is finding out if they are charging you for making the changes, and if they are perhaps you may be more comfortable making the changes yourself and resupplying the files.

MOst printers if they want your custom won't rob your work or designs. If they did and you found out, it wouldn't be too long before everyone knew and they'd be out of business. It's in their interest to protect your files and designs, like a journalist protects their source, if they copped the source to the authorities then they wouldn't be very good journalists.

[Scott Weichert]

There's absolutely no reason to password protect or otherwise lock a file when you are sending to press.

[khawaib]

Thanks for replies.

[Lukas Engqvist]

It may not mean they want to change the file just process it. Password protection locks even automatic trapping and other processes that might be handled by the rip.
Things that might need changes include, but are not limited to:
Black being too rich, or not rich enough.
Trapping.
Overprint.
Incorrect colour management poluting pure colours.
Incorrect transparency settings.