New - Uploading store banner - not enough pixels?

[quirkychick]

Hi. I'm new to Zazzle, and I'm trying to upload a store banner from an .ai file. It keeps telling me that my file is only 1000 pixels and has to be 1140, which I don't even understand since it's a vector image. I have tried to fix this, but it isn't working. No matter what I do, each file is only 1000 pixels. How do I get the system to be happy with my file? At this point, I just want to put any crap up there and get it over with because this was supposed to be easy. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[Sara_H]

@quirkychick Try and upload either a jpg/png wider than 1140  (mine was 1600px × 900px) then you can reposition and crop to the desired size 

[quirkychick]

@Sara_H  Thank you for your response. Jpg/png are not choices when I try to convert it. There's Adobe PDF, which Zazzle mentions, but I'm not sure if that's a good choice or not. It should work in .ai, and I did think I figured out how to change it to pixels. However, I cannot figure out how to change the pixels of the entire file, just each component. It is still saying it's only 1000 pixels by 276 pixels. This is exactly in line with my experience with Illustrator since the day I downloaded and paid lots of money for it. This seems like such an easy thing to do, but then I say that about everything I try to do in Illustrator. I guess this is may be more about Illustrator settings, but my experience with that forum hasn't been good, so I'm not sure posting the same question there will help me.

[Sara_H]

Hi @quirkychick I don't use Illustrator (Affinity Designer girl) so not sure why you can't convert an AI file to png/jpg. Is there no option to flatten the file and export as png?

There are converters online (search "converting ai to png" ) or I found this thread in the adobe forums https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/converting-ai-to-png-is-this-even-possible/td... which may be helpful? 

someone said in that thread - File>Export As and select png from the dropdown menu. - was from 2018 though
Good luck!

[quirkychick]

I am beginning to understand that I'm needing to do something with the file in Illustrator rather than the files menu on my computer. I am new to graphics programs, and this is something I'm not used to. Illustrator has created a huge learning curve for me, and the college course I took did not teach me some of the basics. We just started doing fancy effects right off. I will try out your suggestion. Thank you.

[Zob1]

My copy of Illustrator is old so perhaps won't match yours, but for me the method is "Save for Web and Devices" in the File menu. This opens a two pane window with the source file and a web preview, with a right hand column where file type can be chosen (including .png and .jpg) and image size can be adjusted.

[Windy]

moving

[PenguinPower]

@quirkychick  You can make a jpg, tiff or png file easily and directly from Illustrator. Because you are converting from a vector image to a pixel based image you cannot do a 'save as', you must 'export' the image. From there you will see many options, not available in the save as menu. 

[Windy]

I have no trouble converting AI files to JPG or PNG. I do have a newer version, However I do NOT use the save for web route. Is there another route you can try? I use export as opposed to save. Maybe this will help?

[quirkychick]

Thank you everyone for your help. I was using the Save As menu, not realizing this would have anything to do with the problem. After reading the suggestions I went into the File menu, hovered over Export, selected Save For Web, and chose JPEG High. When I tried to place the image on the web page, it worked perfectly. Thanks again!