Opacity mask shape shows in EPS file

Hi guys, this might be a stupid question but for example: say I have text in illustrator and I put a white elipse over the text and then put an opacity mask on the elipse and paste the text onto the opacity mask so that the white elipse only shows up on the text, I then take the opacity down to create a glass effect so to speak. Well, when I save this as a PNG, it is all ok as all you can is the text with the glass effect, however, when I save it as a EPS file (which I need) it shows the WHOLE elipse in the background, as well as the text, how do I delete this white background that shows the elipse when saving as an EPS.
Thanks

There's a few ways you can do what you are doing. You have not mentioned what color the text is. But, yes you can do it by clipping. Here's what I would do ( to bypass the Flattening issues ). Copy the text and move it off the artboard. Convert the copied text to outlines. Position the ellipse over the text where you want it. Select both the outlined text and the ellipse. Go to the Pathfinder menu and select "Divide". Now, select the elements inside the ellipse you want to appear transparent. Set the new color in the Color menu. I'm thinking the text is 100% K ( Black ), where the ellipse appears inside the text, set the color to whatever transparency percentage you had used in the previous file ( er, let's say 40% K ). As an option, you can delete any unwanted ellipse segments left behind.

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Linked images in eps files

I was playing with CS5 over the last several days and noticed somethng odd.
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- Open the eps and look at the layers palette. It now shows Layer 1 > Group > Group > Clipping Mask, Image.
Now, I vaguely recall that creating an eps in Illy always builds a clipping mask around images (though, why, I have no idea. It seems to needlessly complicate things) which would explain one of the Groups. But, what's with the extra group level? Is this action new to CS5? I'm upgrading from a rather old version of Illustrator, but I never saw this behavior before.
And, is there a way to stop the creation of clipping masks around images in eps files?

To stop the creation of clipping masks around images in eps files and still keep your Linked File "linked" and not "embedded", uncheck "Include Linked Files" checkbox in the EPS Options dialog and then choose Preserve Links in the subsequent warning dialog.

Logo with Gradient Opacity Mask, file format

Hi there,
This is now a very well known and certainly answered already question but:
I produce my first logo using a opacity mask that let a part of the fill color fade into any colored background (transparency then).
I used Quark for years and used to save all my vector file for importation in .EPS
Problem, in InDesign, if I want my logo to fade correctly in any colored background, I have to place a native Illustrator format in .AI (that took me a while to figure out by the way, silly me).
This is nice if your a designer and have a recent Illustrator version. But what format use to distribute the vector file that will be imported in any publishing application and keep the transparency working?
Any advice welcome. But I'd like to keep the file as vector.
Richard

Thanks for your usefull link Mordy.
After years of design, I keep learning more and more and trying to stay up to date.
Actually, I'd say that logo using transparency rely on too recent technology and might be difficult to reproduce anywhere.
Giving away a pdf file could be a solution, but I don't know if pdf can be easely imported in any publishing application.
Richard

How do I fix a problem with .eps files not showing up properly in icon view

Actually my .eps files are not showing properly in any of the views but icon view is most important to me. I am using OSX.8.5 on a mac mini and mac book air. Almost all of my .eps files are conversions of .wmf files converted to .eps by WMF Converter software. All of these files used to be on a PC running windows Vista using ST Thumbnails explorer to be able to view thumbnails. For background info: I had to use a program to view the WMF files becasue hackers could put viruses into the thumbnail for WMF fies so instead of fixing the problem Microsoft disabled the thumbnail view for all WMF files.
A few of my .eps files are conversions of files created in CorelDraw 3x and converted to .eps in CorelDraw 3x. Both types of .eps files misbehave the same.
I downloaded one .eps file today from the internet to see if it would misbehave the same way (it does).
Here is the problem: After a reboot when I first view a folder that contains .eps files in icon view I can see the file contents fine. If I use the resize slider at the bottom of the window or resize the window itself then some or all of my .eps files revert to displaying the "generic icon" of a Loupe with a picture behind it. If i can manage to put the resize slider to exactly where it was then my icons display the file contents as they did before I messed with the slider. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when an icon will display as the file contents or when the generic icon comes up. In some folders all the icons display correctly at the smallest icon size and in other folders the icons may display correctly or as only generic or a mix of generic and file contents. Icons to files that came from the same source will not necessarily display the same way. Icons to files that came from the same source and were converted by WMF Converter at the same minute do not necessarily display the same way. If I display "info" for the files sometimes the previev pane of the info box will display the generic icon or sometimes it will show the file contents. If I take an .eps icon that displays properly and drop it into a folder where all .eps icons are displayed as generic then that icon displays generic. When I move that same icon out of that folder then it will display properly. Icon view, list view, column view and cover flow view all display differently with no discernable pattern. Sometimes I can see file contents in column view and not icon view. Sometimes in cover flow and not in icon view. It makes no difference if I have a handful of .eps files in a folder or hundereds of files in a folder. After an undetermined amount of time the icons might display properly again or maybe not.
What I have done so far: exhaustive search of the internet did not find anyone else with the same issue. I checked and fixed all disk permission errors that disk utilities would fix. I know that icon view and quick look are two different things, but, I did however, download and install an eps quicklook plugin that did not seem to make a difference for my issue. BTW Quick look sometimes works and sometimes not (no discernable pattern to this behavior either). I tried the cnet download fix for quicklook just for grins. It had me force QL to reload plugins and it's cache then I cleared out the QL configuration files. This did not seem to make a difference in the behavior of icon view or Quicklook. The only two things I have found to be consistant are 1) The "open with preview" always works but I know this is different because this preview actually generates a pdf view of the file. 2) When the icon does display the file contents it always displays correctly.
When you read this please be mindful of: I am a Microsoft refugee not yet familiar with the Apple world so you may have to tell me how to do "simple" things. I have no idea what is the difference between a "thumbnail" or a "preview" or the behind the scenes way that apple generates the icon appearance for the 4 different views.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I tried to insert a screen shot but got an error message when I did it.

Was the error number really 0XE8....
iPhone, iPad, iPod touch: Unknown error containing '0xE' when connecting

Why does Quickview stop showing previews when I scan through a folder of .eps files?

I have an Adobe Illustrator folder with a bunch of my .eps files that I browse through, and after about 20 or 30 files the quickview preview stops showing me the artwork and shows the generic eps image. Is this a limited feature or is something wrong here?
Any advice, help. or

Try downloading this: http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/epsqlplg/
You place it in ~/Library/QuickLook
Source.

Create opacity mask from self shape?

Is there a way to automatically create an opacity mask in the same shape as my selected object?

With the object selected...
- Copy
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EPS file placed within INDD art shows crop marks when exported to PDF

Hi Friends -
I have a INDD art file I'm working on, within which I placed an EPS image. Upon exporting the INDD art to PDF, the document has what appear to be crop marks surrounding the EPS image. This is not where the image should be cut, and these marks are being shown in a functional part of the design. Here is a screenshot of one corner of the EPS; the other 3 corners have identical marks:
Additional information:
- MS Windows 7 Enterprise SP1
- InDesign CS5.5 Version 7.5.3
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- EPS file does not create these crop marks when placed into another INDD file and exported using the same process as above.
- No other elements of the INDD file have similar marks displayed after export.
Any help with where I might find the setting in INDD to turn this OFF would be greatly appreciated!
D

That was probably the most expeditious reply I've ever received in a forum.
Anyhow, the crop marks are not part of the actual EPS image. Opening the EPS file in PS or AI reveals no stray crop marks so, unless the marks are somehow part of the EPS settings rather than a visible element of the image, I think it has something to do with INDD and its settings. To confirm, I did place this EPS in another INDD document and an export procedure utilizing the same steps does not reproduce the crop marks.

Eps files not showing up in FM

Hi,
I made an eps file in Illustrator, and when I import it into FM I get an empty box. I've included a screen shot of my eps options. What am I doing wrong? I just updated to a new computer. It's the same CS6 software. Windows 7.

I get this error too when I first save a new file as an eps. I hit OK and then it saves. And if I save it again with a new name I don't get this error.

Problems converting from CS2 - eps files show TIFF error

I have multiple volumes of a violin method book in InDesign CS2 and was considering upgrading to InDesign CS5. While using the trial version (which I just downloaded last night), every single of my eps files (hundreds of images across multiple documents) -- which were handled correctly by CS2 -- came up with the following error: "Error encountered while reading TIFF image. Image may be damaged or incompatible. Resave the image with different settings and try again."
Inconveniently, these errors were not collated into a single pop-up box when the document opened; instead, they appear one box at a time, as you page through the document -- so you have to manually close this error pop-up box hundreds of times.
Meanwhile, the problem is not with the image files themselves. Simply manually re-linking to the exact same image file corrected the image preview in each instance, for my Books 2 & 3. This would inevitably seem to suggest the image file was never actually damaged or incompatible.
However, in my Book 1, re-linking an image caused the program to crash each time I tried it.
The images themselves are EPS, not TIFF, and are listed in the links palette as such. I assume that it's simply the image preview which is a TIFF -- however, the pop-up box should be more illuminating for your users who don't do this for a living.
Meanwhile, the status of each buggy link is listed in the Links palette as "Okay." The inability to see the image correctly (and having to close a pop-up box each time you land on that page) is not, in my book, "okay."
I am planning to immediately un-install CS5 and return to CS2; I cannot possibly go through the laborious process of re-linking hundreds of links to image files that are perfectly fine. However, I wanted to post this feedback for the benefit of other users, or in hopes that the bug will be fixed. I love my InDesign and am very disappointed that CS5 is handling my documents so erratically.

Hopefully you haven't already saved the new file over the old version. Under no circumstances do you want to do that as there is no way to go back without having CS4 and CS3 to work through.
That said, if your CS2 file is still intact, try exporting it to interchange format (.inx), then open the .inx file in CS5 (or CS5.5 which is the current release, and not the same as CS5).

Problems converting from CS4 - eps files show TIFF error

Having downloaded the latest version of Indesign CS6, I have tried to open several douments of a music tutor featuring many EPS music graphics along with many Tiff images. However, I keep getting following error: "Error encountered while reading TIFF image. Image may be damaged or incompatible. Resave the image with different settings and try again."
I have resaved all the EPS and Tiff images as CS6 files and relinked them into the document but to no avail - the problem remains. I suspect that the image files are not actually damaged but that there is some other problem. I have 100s of images and am not sure what next to do. I noticed another user ( Kaleidoscopes Violin) who had a similar problem and it was suggested that "if your CS2 file is still intact, try exporting it to interchange format (.inx), then open the .inx file in CS5 (or CS5.5 which is the current release, and not the same as CS5)." - but this was for CS2 to CS5, and CS6 does not allow .inx file export. I need to work with the document in future so exporting it as a PDF file is of no use to me. Is this a known bug in CS6? I would be grateful for any advice. Thank you.

Wow ... very, very helpful responses. I wish I'd posted this earlier!!
I had no idea that EPS was an older file format, or that PDF was considered a "legitimate" graphics format. Sibelius 6 only exports to EPS, TIFF (yuck!!), and PNG. However, I did discover that it "prints" to Adobe PDF. Odd that the option is located in an unexpected file menu, but very glad it's there!! The PDF format loads fine into InDesign and also prints beautifully, unlike the PNG option. Yay!!
As far as embedding fonts, I had been making sure this option was checked (when exporting from Sibelius), so it seems unlikely that was the problem. So in theory that would mean it's not a problem of the InDesign font cache, or of a font discrepancey. In practice ... who knows. What's particularly puzzling is that some EPS files are fine, while others were not; and also that CS2 had no problems with any of them.
Regardless, the font information is really, really good to know ... I'll save this thread for future use!
Thanks so much to all for your generous help!!!
Elise

Clipping Masks and Opacity Masks leaving slight hairline

I'm running into a problem when using a clipping mask or opacity mask in Illustrator CC 17.1. Either type of mask leaves a slight outline around the masking object, creating a noticeable break in what should be a uniform background. Some details:
I've created a ring in 4 quadrants. Each quadrant contains patterns/objects that need to be isolated from one another. Over top of the artwork of each quadrant, I Paste In Place a copy of the quadrant's shape whose colours for background and stroke are both set to none, the stroke value field is blank, not set to 0. Where the same colour in the adjacent areas of each quadrant meet there is a faint hairline. These are meant to be seamless and I don't know why this is happening. When viewing as Outlines, all vectors are overlapping perfectly to my eye.
I've tried the same thing with simpler shapes as a test and get the same results. In this example of 3 stacked objects, I built the shapes using the (top) Shape Builder tool, (middle) clipping mask and (bottom) opacity mask:
As you can see, the results are inconsistent but there are definitely faint lines in each case. The Shape Builder does not have a line between the black shapes for some reason yet there's one between the cyan colours where the stacked masked objects meet. Meanwhile it's the reverse situation for the 2 following blocks.
I've read posts in this forum and others about this being an anti-aliasing issue, that it won't print with the faint outlines, but not every application of this graphic will be going to print. I've exported EPS files, PDFs and various other formats. I didn't notice any hairlines in a TIFF but the library of files I will be providing to my client will consist of vector and other raster files like PNGs and JPGs that do show the faint outlines. When I place a PDF or EPS into an Illustrator or InDesign layout, the hairlines remain so that documents sent electronically, not printed, have these noticeable lines. They also remain when I place an EPS into Photoshop which is unacceptable for building graphics for the web.
Can anyone tell me if there's a solution for making seamless transitions between masked objects in Illustrator? Or this just an inherent flaw with Illustrator (or perhaps my approach to building these graphics)?

Well it's good to know I'm not approaching building my graphics in the wrong way, haha. I'm working in picas actually, I didn't think the type of units would make any difference.
I'm not quite sure I follow what you're suggesting (perhaps too much BBQ on the brain right now) but some points are on whole values and some aren't. I'm not sure how I could change those to whole values and maintain proper geometric proportions, though.
Some additional info:
1. Just saved PDF and EPS copies. Both show the hairlines in the following: QuickLook, Reader, Preview, when placed into Illustrator / InDesign / Photoshop, and when opened directly in Photoshop (with the exception of the EPS). Only the EPS opened directly with Photoshop was free of the hairlines.
2. When exporting to JPG and PNG, using the Type Optimized setting retains hairlines but they disappear if Art Optimized is chosen. So that's one little trick I just learned.
So there are ways that I can save them without hairlines, that's great. But once I distribute PDFs and EPS files for the client/third parties to place into publications for electronic distribution the hairlines will appear in those documents. I could ask them to place hi-res raster files instead but it doesn't give them the flexibility that vector graphics afford.
Is there a similar option to 'Art Optimized' I'm overlooking when exporting PDFs and EPS files? As a test, under EPS Options > Transparency I tried both the High Resolution and For Complex Art presets and it didn't make any difference.

Problem Saving PDF with Opacity Masks in Illustrator CS3

I'm having trouble exporting an Illlustrator CS3 file to PDF. I have two layers in the the .ai file that have opacity masks applied. When I save the file as a PDF, the two layers with opacity masks seem to disappear (or they are flattened down to white/100% transparency.) They do not show on screen nor when printing. I've tried opening the saved PDF in Illustrator to investigate, and the layers are still there, but with no opacity mask. Where am I going wrong? I've tried a new file with a simple shape and a simple opacity mask, and it exports fine to PDF. So something is wrong with my file set up, but I can't pinpoint what! I have also tried exporting to various versions of PDF, and nothing works. Help!
Screen cap from Illustrator:
Screen cap of PDF:
Correct (Illustrator) with subtle starburst effect:
Wrong (Acrobat PDf), no starburst!
Thanks for looking!

Not sure what's going on in your file, but it's definately having a problem with the Steaks layer. Trying to release the clipping mask and ungrouping all the layers is having a problem so it might have something to do with the way the streaks layer was built.
Using your file I replaced the streaks layer and put a starburst that's clipped to the icon shape. I've attached two files. One is for Illustrator CC so you can retain the gradient fill on the stroke which is only available in newer versions of Illustrator. The other has the starburst I created expanded so that you can open the file and retain the startburst look.
CC
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37256756/Go-IconCC.ai
CS3
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37256756/Go-IconCS3.ai

Linking Photoshop EPS Files with Clipping Paths

I'm running InDesign CS4 6.0.3 on a dual 2GHz G5 with Mac OS X 10.5.7.
We have a workflow that involves Photoshop EPS files being placed in InDesign with the object's clipping path set to Photoshop Path. If the link is updated or relinked, InDesign no longer restricts the image to the boundaries of the path—either on screen or on export to PDF—even though choosing Object -> Clipping Path -> Options still shows the type set to Photoshop Path. The only way that I have found to get the clipping path to fully apply to the image is to change the type from Photoshop Path to None and back to Photoshop Path, all while the Preview check box is on. I tried different combinations of turning the Apply Photoshop Clipping Path option on and off at the time of initial placement and at the time of relinking with no effect on this behavior.
Assuming that using a format other than EPS and using transparency rather than clipping paths are not in play at the moment, my questions are:
1. Is this a know issue with InDesign CS4? If so, can we expect a fix soon?
2. Is there anything that can be done on the user side that is less cumbersome than the workaround described above?

@Mark
Photoshop PSD is fine for all raster work. But if you have vector masks, vector shapes or text in the file then saving as PDF would be the better option, you can choose to remove the white background when importing the PDF in the Show Options of the Place Dialog box.
And that's null point anyway, as soon as you open a photoshop EPS file in Photoshop it rasterises everything. So what I said isn't a viable solution for this project. But to keep in mind that PSD will output as raster only and PDF can have transparency and raster + vector data.
Just thought I'd through that out there.

Applying a colour to a 1 bit photoshop eps file

Hi everyone,
I've placed a 1 bit photoshop eps file into Illustrator and I'm trying to colour it. I tried selecting it and applying one of the colour swatches but nothing happens. I wondered if anyone could help me out?
Thanks in advance.

gwh,
Nothing magical happens just because you save a raster image in a format that may contain vector artwork. A raster image is a raster image is an Argh.
If you just want it to appear with another colour with the help of Illy (you can actually recolour in Photoshop), you may cheat, such as this way:
1) Create a rectangle (at least) the size of the raster image with the desired (darkest) colour;
2) Place the raster image on top of 1) and in the Transparency palette flyout click Make Opacity Mask, with Clip ticked (unless you want a frame) and with Invert Mask ticked (unless you want a negative).

Illustrator can't open eps files

I've been have an issue with CS3 and now CS5. When trying to open an eps file I get an error "Can't open illustration. Could not complete the requested operation". I can see a thumbnail, but nothing in the file shows up. Any ideas?

Tranparency gets flattened in the making of the .eps, and there is a choice as to whether you want to embed links.
If you somehitng simple with no transprency, you would be able to make yourself a nice editable .ai file out of this.
Once you have transparency, the those elements get merged and embedded, and often in quite a complex splicing.
You can place the .eps in Illustrator and then embed the .eps to convert the placed into some vector shapes you may need to grab.

Opacity mask shape shows in EPS file

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