Canon Elephant

[Amccombs3]

I offered to build the Canon Elephant for a good cause (attendees at the USAHEC event on March 9 will understand). Upon downloading it, I find that although it is depicted as gray, all of the actual pieces are white except for three gray areas: the throat, the tail, and a circle around each eye. Could someone else please make the experiment and download the pieces and take a look, so we can figure out whether the problem is with Canon's file or some oddity of my computer? Many thanks.

Anne

[SCEtoAUX]

This is strange. When I click on the link for either the A4 or USLetter size to open the file in the browser all of the parts are pink except the tusks which are white, and the throat and tail which are grey. When I download the files and open them in the pdf viewer the parts are grey that should be grey and the tusks are white as it should be.

I tried printing page 13 from the website to see if the pink parts would print grey, but they printed pink like they are displayed. The tail on the page printed grey like it is displayed. When I printed the same page from the downloaded file the parts pinted grey as they should.

[jagolden01]

I just downloaded the letter size and it was gray as shown on the built picture.

[Vermin_King]

letter-sized downloaded, displayed and printed (only one page, as a test) fine. that is using the latest update of acrobat reader

[Amccombs3]

Ah! Problem solved; Vermin_King gave me the hint. My fairly new Windows 8 computer was using Windows Reader to view and print the file, and it wasn't getting the colors right. I just downloaded Adobe Reader and the file now displays and prints correctly.

I won't be starting this project right away -- there are several models in the queue ahead of it -- but I'll try to do a build report when I get the Elephant under construction. First impression: it's gonna be big. Each ear is about 4" / 10 cm high. Estimating from the photos in the instructions, I'd guess the completed model will be about 9" high and maybe 12" nose-to-tail. The instructions don't give the model's finished dimensions anywhere I can see.

[Don Boose]

Anne - You will be happy to know that the big elephant heads on the wall of the White Elephant are all African and not Asian elephants. And they are gray.

Don

[Amccombs3]

Don -- Thanks. Did you have to make a return visit?

After posting the solution, I printed out a few other models that Windows Reader had messed up the colors on. Moral: all .pdf readers are not equal.

If anyone knows of a good Asian elephant model out there, I'll look into it. But I suspect the African elephant is going to be the one built.

Anne

[jagolden01]

I know many like to use free (or even pay) third party pdf readers and writers, but in all my years in graphics, and I started using Adobe Acrobat right from its start, it has never failed me.

It is expensive but I keep using Adobe's Creative Suite with Acrobat Pro. I bought a fresh legal copy of CS3 Design and Web Premium on eBay a couple of years ago for 1/2 price. Such a deal. Have been using these apps since '88.

Glad you got your problem solved. Good luck on the builds.

[Don Boose]

Anne - Yes. I had a working lunch there today, where I edited the two student theses for which I am advisor. While there, I checked out the elephants. All the artwork from Thailand features Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) of course, with small ears, short trunks, and pointy heads; but the elephant heads and one very nice painting of an elephatn mother and child are African elephants (Loxodonta africana) with big ears, long trunks, and flat heads.

Joe - I use Acrobat Pro for copyediting, since the manuscripts and galleys are submitted as pdfs. Never tried using it for anything other than editing and collating documents, but it is certainly good for that.

Don

[Kevin WS]

Foxit is good for printing - in fact I prefer it to Acrobat Pro (which I also have) as it is easier to manipulate the sizes, orientation etc.

I think so anyway.