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TIPS

Exporting Artwork for Print


When exporting artwork for print, to make a poster for example, there are two ways of achieving
this. You can either choose to export a high-res bitmap image, or you can export your artwork in
vector, via the PDF format.

May 2013
Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Legal Notices
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Tel: +1 514 278 8666


Fax: +1 514 278 2666

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The content of this document is covered by a specific limited warranty and exclusions and limit of liability under the
applicable License Agreement as supplemented by the special terms and conditions for Adobe®Flash® File Format (SWF).
For details, refer to the License Agreement and to those special terms and conditions.

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Any reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

Trademarks
Toon Boom®, Toon Boom® Harmony™, Toon Boom® Animate Pro™, Toon Boom® Storyboard Pro™ and Toon Boom
Manager™ are trademarks owned by Toon Boom Animation Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.

Publication Date
2013-05-10

Copyright © 2013 Toon Boom Animation Inc. All rights reserved.

OTIP101HAR10EN

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Exporting in Bitmap
Harmony 10 is optimized in 64-bit, this allows you to take advantage of all the memory on your machine, this is far superior
to 32 bit which has memory limitations and under some circumstances may crash when rendering a large image.

Harmony 10 eliminates this worry and since you can take advantage of all the memory on your machine, the likelihood of
running out of memory is minimal.

For this reason, you can actually set up a resolution specifically for print, and create a bitmap image directly from Harmony.
We recommend this method because you can:

• Take advantage of all Harmony’s effects, including Cutters, Colour Overrides, textures, and Deform.
• Fully integrate background elements, from Photoshop or Illustrator directly in Harmony.
• Put sophisticated effects like depth blur, refract, and more.
• Choose to create your final print image outside. Do this by rendering out individual bitmap images for each layer or
specific groups of layers and then finesse and fine-tune in other applications for the final look.

Firstly, calculate the size of the resolution that you’ll need to export for your printed work. For example, if you want to print
out an image of 40 inches by 60 inches (101.6 cm x 152.4 cm) at 150 DPI (dots per inch), then 40x150 by 60x150 is 6000 pixels
by 9000 pixels. So in Toon Boom Harmony, you will want to set your resolution to be 6000 by 9000.

See the Appendix on page 12 for the Values for Resolutions table, this will help with your calculation.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

To set the resolution of your project:

1. Go to Scene > Scene Settings and in the Resolution tab you can type in a custom resolution.

2. Hit the Save button to save and add this resolution to the list so you can reuse it whenever you want.

Now you can create your artwork, taking advantage of all the capabilities of Toon Boom Harmony. When it comes time to
render, attach a Write module to either the final composite, or to individual layers if you want to render the layers
separately. Then select the format of your choice, for example TGA or PNG. If you want to preserve transparency, select
PNG4 to include the alpha channel.

When you’re ready to render, select File > Export > Render Network, and this will export images for any Write modules in
your Network view.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Exporting to Multiple Formats


Sometimes it becomes necessary to export to several different formats simultaneously. Let’s say, for example, if you want
to export posters of several different sizes.

It can be helpful to set up all the resolution settings first for the different sizes that you may want to print out.

You can adjust the resolution parameters for width and height in Scene > Scene Settings, and then hit Save to save the
setting and give it a name. To make it easy for you to work quickly you should first save and name all the presets you might
want to access later.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

When you set up your scene make sure that the current resolution of your project, set in Scene Settings, is the resolution you
need for your maximum size. You will see your Camera frame adjust to match this resolution, allowing you to fine-tune the
placement of this framing. To help you choose the correct resolution, refer to the Values for Resolutions table in the
Appendix on page 12.

If you simply attach a Write module to the Composite module at the bottom of your project, this Write module will render
with the resolution from your Scene Settings dialog.

If you would like to create a smaller poster from this scene, then there are two modules that will be helpful:

• Scale-Output: This module allows you to scale down the overall scene
• Crop: This module lets you crop the top or bottom of the frame, if the aspect ratio is different for the smaller poster.

If the different resolutions are all of a similar aspect ratio, for example, .692, .704, then you can use a Scale-Output module
only. If the aspect ratios are considerably different, then you may need to add a Crop module before your Scale-Output. For
help with Crop, see the User Guide.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Most of the time, however, you can simply use Scale-Output. Since we have already set up all our resolutions earlier you can
just select the resolution from the dropdown list.

Once you have selected the resolution attach a new Write module under your Scale-Output module. Make sure you give this
version it’s own unique name so you’ll be able to find it later.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Using this process, you can add as many Scale-Output modules and Write modules as you need for all your different sizes.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Exporting in Vector
When exporting artwork in vector, keep in mind that the common interchange formats, PDF and SWF, do not support all
the effects that you can do in Harmony. So when you export artwork via PDF, the recommended format, you will not be able
to use effects such as Blurs, Glows, or even Cutters from Harmony and also have this transfer out to your exported format.

This is a limitation of the PDF format itself, not of Harmony. Since the PDF format’s functionalities are not controlled by
Toon Boom, we cannot expand upon what this format can contain.

For this reason, if you want to preserve the vector artwork you may want to create a simplified version of your production
character when exporting for print.

To prepare your files for export, do the following:

1. Remove all cutters, colour overrides, or other effects you may have in your scene, adjusting the artwork as necessary
2. Optimize the layer order in the Network or Timeline to have a simple order
3. Convert all composites within the scene to Pass-Through (if there are composites set to as Bitmap, then the artwork
will be exported to PDF as a bitmap image)

4. Create one composite at the end of your character or scene, and select as Vector for this one.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

5. Now adjust the Write module, connected to the character or scene, and in the Layer Properties for the output
format, select PDF.

Textures that are painted in from the colour palette are not supported on the export to PDF. If you have textures,
deforms, or effects, export in bitmap instead of vector.

Now your file is ready to export, you can do a File > Export > Render Network to render through your Write module.

To test your file, use Adobe Illustrator, or the program of your choice, to open the PDF file. From Illustrator, you can go to
File > Place, and then uncheck the Link option to bring in the original artwork.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Now you will see your imported artwork, with all the original vector paths intact.

If you had a complicated network, with effects in it, those effects will be removed and the layer order may be out of
sequence – so it is best to optimize the file before export as stated above.

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

Appendix
Table of Reference Values for Resolutions

cm Inches 150 DPI 200 DPI 300 DPI

2.54 1 150 200 300

5.08 2 300 400 600

7.62 3 450 600 900

10.16 4 600 800 1200

12.7 5 750 1000 1500

15.24 6 900 1200 1800

17.78 7 1050 1400 2100

20.32 8 1200 1600 2400

22.86 9 1350 1800 2700

25.4 10 1500 2000 3000

27.94 11 1650 2200 3300

30.48 12 1800 2400 3600

33.02 13 1950 2600 3900

35.56 14 2100 2800 4200

38.1 15 2250 3000 4500

40.64 16 2400 3200 4800

43.18 17 2550 3400 5100

45.72 18 2700 3600 5400

48.26 19 2850 3800 5700

50.8 20 3000 4000 6000

53.34 21 3150 4200 6300

55.88 22 3300 4400 6600

58.42 23 3450 4600 6900

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

60.96 24 3600 4800 7200

63.5 25 3750 5000 7500

66.04 26 3900 5200 7800

68.58 27 4050 5400 8100

71.12 28 4200 5600 8400

73.66 29 4350 5800 8700

76.2 30 4500 6000 9000

78.74 31 4650 6200 9300

81.28 32 4800 6400 9600

83.82 33 4950 6600 9900

86.36 34 5100 6800 10200

88.9 35 5250 7000 10500

91.44 36 5400 7200 10800

93.98 37 5550 7400 11100

96.52 38 5700 7600 11400

99.06 39 5850 7800 11700

101.6 40 6000 8000 12000

104.14 41 6150 8200 12300

106.68 42 6300 8400 12600

109.22 43 6450 8600 12900

111.76 44 6600 8800 13200

114.3 45 6750 9000 13500

116.84 46 6900 9200 13800

119.38 47 7050 9400 14100

121.92 48 7200 9600 14400

124.46 49 7350 9800 14700

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Tips: Exporting Artwork for Print

127 50 7500 10000 15000

129.54 51 7650 10200 15300

132.08 52 7800 10400 15600

134.62 53 7950 10600 15900

137.16 54 8100 10800 16200

139.7 55 8250 11000 16500

142.24 56 8400 11200 16800

144.78 57 8550 11400 17100

147.32 58 8700 11600 17400

149.86 59 8850 11800 17700

152.4 60 9000 12000 18000

154.94 61 9150 12200 18300

157.48 62 9300 12400 18600

160.02 63 9450 12600 18900

162.56 64 9600 12800 19200

165.1 65 9750 13000 19500

167.64 66 9900 13200 19800

170.18 67 10050 13400 20100

172.72 68 10200 13600 20400

175.26 69 10350 13800 20700

177.8 70 10500 14000 21000

180.34 71 10650 14200 21300

182.88 72 10800 14400 21600

185.42 73 10950 14600 21900

187.96 74 11100 14800 22200

190.5 75 11250 15000 22500

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