Opening a PDF in Illustrator

Hello.
If I open a PDF document I have been sent with Illustrator with a view to edit the document, will the file be a lower quality than if i were to edit the original Illustrator file?
Thank you

Raster images might indeed be lower quality, since when opening the PDF they will be embedded and thus converted into the documents color mode.
The document color mode is likely to be CMYK, but the images in the PDF might also be RGB. When converting RGB to CMYK, you will of course loose quality and depeding on your color management settings might well ruin the images.

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Error opening Adobe PDF in Illustrator

I'm getting the following message when I try to open a specific Adobe PDF file in Illustrator: "Could not open the file"
The details:
- I created the file yesterday in Illustrator and saved is as an Adobe PDF
- I opened the PDF in Illustrator this morning and have been working on it all day. The file started getting slow (i.e., objects moving slowly), so I saved the file and closed out. When I tried opening the file again in Illustrator, I got the message above.
- Other PDF files will open in Illustrator. The file itself will open in Adobe PDF and in Photoshop - just not in Illustrator. I also tried opening the file in Illustrator on a different computer, and that didn't work, either.
Is there any way to save this file (i.e., preserve all of the layers) and open it in Illustrator again?
Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi Monika,
Thanks for getting back to me. What do you mean by "save to networked or
removable media"? I'm working off a networked computer, but I'm saving to
the desktop, so I don't think that should be an issue, right?
Any ideas about what could have damaged the file? I can't think of anything
strange or different that I did. Is there any way at all to salvage the
file and be able to open it in Illustrator?
Thanks so much for your help,
Amanda

Opening Photoshop PDF in Illustrator problem

Hi,
I've got a problem with opening pdf file from photoshop in illustrator. I've got a psd file with a rasterized background (photo) and about 100 shape layers over it. I'm trying to save it as a photoshop pdf to keep the vector elements unflattened for use in illustrator. The saved pdf is about three times larger than the original psd file. Then I'm trying to open the pdf in illustrator but I get a message that illustrator can't preview it. It only shows the outline of the shapes. Do you know how can I save this pdf to be able to work on it in illustrator? or maybe some trick to copy all of the shapes at once from photoshop to illustrator with correct placement? Thank you in advance:)
Mark

Thanks a lot for your help guys. The option with opening psd file in illustrator works best:)
I've tried opening pdf before but it seems to work fine when there are just a few simple shapes.
@Mylenium: I didn't have different blending modes, only normal. One rasterized layer as background and about 100 shapes layers above. Most of them being text layers converted to shapes. Nothing too fancy:)
I've also thought that different opacities might be the problem but I've saved one pdf with different opacities and the other one with every layer at 100% opacity and both pdf files had exactly the same size and both couldn't be opened.
Thanks again and have a nice day,
Mark

How can I choose a font besides Myriad Pro as default when opening existing PDFs in Illustrator?

I already know how to do this for new documents.
But I work with PDFs generated in AutoCAD.
When opening these files in Illustrator, the default font is always set to Myriad Pro.
How can I substitute my desired font for Myriad when opening EXISTING files, short of copy/pasting into a new file? That workaround is just as time-consuming as resetting the font every time I work on a new document.
Illustrator has to be referencing something when defaulting to this font. It seems unbelievable that this setting cannot be altered.
Any ideas out there?

We get autocad dies from a variety of sources, quite often the font is .txt which susbtitutes to myriad. I use find font to substitue myriad to arial.
Since no doucment is open, changing the New document profiles does not help to get rid of Myriad.
You can record an action for this and set a hot key. The action is pretty fast

Problem with fonts when opening a pdf in Illustrator

Hi all! I'm working on a pdf. I do NOT have the original. So I've found it's easier to open the pages in Illustrator, make edits, and resave as a pdf. The problem is that Illustrator is converting some text to outlines. It is saying I don't have the font, but I do. In fact, on the same page I'll have 4 lines... and some will be converted to outlines and some won't... and they are all the same font. Is there a way to tell Illustrator to NOT convert the font to outlines? I don't mind if it uses a substitute font... it's easy to go in and change the font to the right font. But I don't want the text converted to outlines. Thanks.
Julie
PS I'm using CS 4 on a Mac.

Thanks, Scott. But I'm not sure what you mean by "pretty standard." Are you saying this is, in fact, default behavior in AI 14?
I'm still at AI 12 (CS2), and "standard" behavior (when the font is not available) is for Illustrator to do a font substitution, not automatically convert the type to outlines.
Is this, perhaps, what the new 'Missing Glyph Protection' does in AI 14 (as Myle suggested in post #1)?
If, in fact, this is the new default behavior, I would hope that Illustrator provides a warning (and an option to not proceed) given the highly destructive nature of converting type to outlines.

Text moving when opening a pdf in illustrator

I opened 2 separate hi res pdfs (the front and back of a postcard) in illustrator 5.1. The type on both sides had been outlined and we just relinked the background image on both sides after we did some color adjustments to it. The only type on the front was the name of the company and the headline. Both were white type in separate magenta bars. The type was centered both horizontally and vertically in each bar.
When I opened the front, the headline text moved from being centered horizontally on the pdf to EXACTLY flush right with the company name. There were no problems with the text moving on the back side.
We have been receving files from this client for several years and always make color adjustments due to the uncoated paper stock we print on and have never encountered this before. The original files that the supplied pdfs were made from were also created in illustrator 5.
Is this a known issue? If not, is it acrobat or illustrator problem.

Was the original PDF created in Illustrator? To find out, open the PDF in Acrobat and go to File> Properties, it should show you what program created the PDF. Illustrator is not a universal PDF editor. A safer work flow would be to use Edit Object in Acrobat to make your color corrections. If you decide to use Illustrator, go to Select> All text objects, I suspect there are some un-outlined and un-embedded type elements.
If the fonts are properly embedded, there is almost no reason to outline the type.

Why does text sometimes get garbled when pasting from Excel or opening a PDF in Illustrator?

Hi everyone,
This issue has puzzled me for some time. I've been creating charts in Excel (2008, and now 2011) and pasting them into my Illustrator document (CS5 on a Mac). Sometimes everything pastes perfectly, while other times all or some of the labels, titles, etc. are garbled.
Another strange thing is I can also select a chart in Excel and Save as Picture then chose PDF as the format. The resulting PDF looks exactly how it is supposed to, however when I open it with Illustrator for editing the same thing happens as with pasting.
I realize this issue doesn't involve Illustrator alone, but I figure I have a better chance on these forums than on some Excel forum. If anyone has any ideas to try I would be very happy to hear them!
Thanks very much,
Bern

It's mid-2013 here, this is the first result on Google for this stupid problem. The last comment basically focused on how there are no known solutions to this yet.
ADOBE: I WANT MY PDFs TO OPEN IN ILLUSTRATOR WITHOUT HAVING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE ORIGINAL WORD DOC OR WHATEVER WAS USED TO OPEN THEM. IF PREVIEW CAN SEE THE FILE AS IT SHOULD BE SEEN, THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE THIS DOWN.
Why do we pay money to put up with this crap? For the amount we are giving you to use your software, you should be on top of these like flies on the stuff that flies like.
I have PDF docs that I need to open in Illustrator because - no doubt due to Adobe's greed - there is literally no other software that can edit the PDF meat. I don't get why InDesign cannot handle PDFs, and we are stuck with this "one page at a time" Illustrator BS. In any case, I need to open these PDFs, and I can't - because they all come out as garbage. I feel like this could be fixed by Adobe in like a week. But that's just not gonna happen, because they would rather spend all their time and resources thinking of new ways to take my money.
Clearly it's a fonts compatibility issue. Why can't we have a dialogue box with character encoding and font selection options when we try and open a PDF?

Opening layered PDF in Illustrator CS2&3

I am currently experiencing problems when opening layered PDF files which have been exported from Esko Graphics Backstage 7.0. When opening files into illustrator CS2 or 3 on one mac it contains the original layers. However when opening on another mac it doesn't. I have been through all preferences and settings and matched them up on both macs but the problem still remains. The versions of Illustrator are exactly the same (12.0.1). The problem also doesn't seem to be Intel/Power PC related. Can any body help please?

Did you check to make sure Paste Remembers Layers was checked in the flyout for the layers menu?

Illustrator AI files opening as PDF in Illustrator

Even though they are saved as AI. On other computers it opens properly. The few files I can open, I can't select using the selection tool because of a clipping mask I cannot get rid of.

field,
You may try the following (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps (the following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file; 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences):
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder Other options (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Trying to open a pdf in illustrator and get an error. "Can't finish previewing. There isn't enough memory" ID=-108

How do I open the file or what is the work around?

Which version?
Which system?
How much RAM?
How much available diskspace?
What kind of file is it? Where did it originate?
How big is it?

When opening interactive pdf in illustrator, form text disappears... how do i save the interactive pdf to be able to use in illustrator without text disappearing?

Any ideas?

Photoshop - no chance.
InDesign - will usually just work.
Text editing in Acrobat is, however, a desperate last resort. Really, never, never consider it for files where the original is still available, even at some effort. Text editing is for where the original is lost and all the backups eaten by termites.

Gradients dropping out when opening PDFs in Illustrator

Hi everyone. I work for a large format printing company. We receive thousands of files every year from many different designers. We started to notice that gradients would drop out of some PDFs when opening them in Illustrator but they would preview fine when opened in Acrobat. I searched high and low for an explanation for this glitch. The only response I received is "Stop opening exported PDFs in Illustrator." This is an unsatisfactory answer for someone that needs to preflight directly in the Illustrator program. I've done a ton of research and have been racking my brain for the last 2 years and have finally found sufficient workarounds for this issue. The downfall with these workarounds: all spot colors located in the gradients will convert to CMYK mixes. I'm still researching to see if there is a way to keep spot colors intact in these areas.
A little back story: InDesign is converting the gradients into something called NChannel. It enables more accurate handling of color blending by including additional dot gain and color mixing info. Both InDesign and Acrobat have the ability to display these elements whereas Illustrator, from what I’m finding, does not. Which is why we’re seeing gradient elements drop out when opened in Illustrator.
Workaround for CMYK Gradients
Open PDF exported from INDD in Acrobat
Go to Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors
Object Type: Smooth Shade (this tells Acrobat to hone in on Gradients only)
Color Type: DeviceCMYK
Check Embed next to Conversion Profile (should be SWOP)
Expand Document Colors on the right and Select DeviceCMYK in Color Spaces then click ok
Save the PDF
Workaround for 1 Spot Color in Gradients (Converts Spot Color located in Gradient to CMYK – all other Spots stay intact)
Open PDF exported from INDD in Acrobat
Go to Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors
Object Type: Smooth Shade (this tells Acrobat to hone in on Gradients only)
Color Type: Spot Color
Check Embed next to Conversion Profile (should be SWOP)
Expand Document Colors on the right and Select the Spot that is located in the Gradient in Color Spaces then click ok
Save the PDF
Workaround for 2 Spot Colors in Gradients (Converts Spot Colors located in Gradient toCMYK – all other Spots stay intact)
Open PDF exported from INDD in Acrobat
Go to Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors
Object Type: Smooth Shade (this tells Acrobat to hone in on Gradients only)
Color Type: Spot Color
Check Embed next to Conversion Profile (should be SWOP)
Expand Document Colors on the right and Select the DeviceN spot color that is located in the Gradient in Color Spaces then click ok
Save the PDF
Please test it and let me know if you run into any issues with these workarounds. I'm always looking for new problems to solve!
- Jenny

you said--"...needs to preflight directly in the Illustrator program. I've done a ton of research and have been racking my brain for the last 2 years and have finally found sufficient workarounds for this issue"
Your workarounds seem time consuming and (possibly) unnecessary for the following reasons:
1. large format printers use 4-8 colors to achieve color (so spot colors shouldn't be an issue)
2. Acrobat Pro has it's own 'preflight' function that works fairly well
additionally (don't know if you know this) there is an add-on to acrobat called 'Pitstop' (google it) that allows just about any change/correction/alteration to be made to a PDF
...and...opening a PDF in illustrator (that wasn't created in illustrator--do you know how to determine this?) can lead to many problems i.e. gradients dropping out, text reflow, etc.
as far as testing your workarounds, seriously, who has the time when there are tools available that make using them unnecessary (this assumes that you have created these 'workarounds' to match your worflow--but a nearly pure PDF workflow should work in this day and age, depending on your RIP and software).

Opening PDF in Illustrator. Some font characters outlined, some not.

Here's what I'm experiencing...
Let's say I create a poster with a couple of blocks of text in Illustrator, using a single font. Then, I generate a PDF of the poster.
Now, on the same computer, I open the PDF in Illustrator, and Illustrator pops-up an alert saying some text has been outlined to preserve appearance. And, indeed, here and there throughout the text, some words, combination of words, or whole lines of text have been outlined, but most of the text is still live.
Why does this happen? There's no difference, font-wise, between the text that is untouched, and the text that got outlined. Same face, same weight. In fact, the same word, set the same way, will be untouched in one line, and be outlined elsewhere in the text. It's really baffling.

No, there are no transparency effects or objects in the final file.
As a matter of fact, the file is purposely made without transparency effects because the printer my client sends the pdf to still uses an ancient RIP that cannot accurately process anything newer than PDF 1.3.
I'm not at my studio right now, so I can't get a screenshot for you.

Illustrator crashes when opening some PDFs

When opening some PDFs in Illustrator, Illustrator "Quits Unexpectedly"
It only occurs on one out of 15 of our Macs
I am running on all the latest updates both OS and Adobe
It is very intermittent
It only seems to do it across a SMB network share
If the file is copied to the desktop it works fine
If the file is outlined and accessed from the network share it works fine
If the file is moved to another folder on the same network share it seems to work fine
I have repaired all fonts and cleared all font caches
This has recently had a full clean (using adobe's clean script) and re-install of Illustrator because of updating issues, but we have other Macs which have had to go through this also.
I have a crash log also but it is too big to post here
Any ideas before I wipe the lot and start again?

It is not nonsense.
A pdf is supposed to be an end-format, not to be edited. Edits should always be done in the originating application, not in Illustrator. A native AI-file is not the same thing as a pdf. Editing pdfs in Illustrator can be a recipe for disaster and damage of the file-content.
The following is from Dov Isaacs at Adobe in teh Indesign mailinglist at Lassosoft:
"Adobe Illustrator is NOT, repeat NOT, repeat yet again NOT a general
purpose PDF (or EPS) editor. It cannot fully and properly edit PDF
(or EPS) files created any than by "save as" operations from the
equivalent or later version of Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator only
"knows" about PDF constructs that it itself generates. Other PDF
constructs may be modified or deleted without notice. Furthermore,
Illustrator does NOT support mixed color-space PDF files. And finally,
Illustrator does NOT make use of any fonts embedded in a PDF file. If
you "edit" a page of a PDF file in Illustrator, you must have the
same version of the same font on the Illustrator system as you have
on the system that creates the PDF.
We constant hear of problems in prepress due to misuse of Adobe
Illustrator as a PDF fixup program. You use Illustrator at your own
risk for this purpose which is absolutely not supported by
Adobe Systems Incorporated!
- Dov

Opening Multi-page PDFs in Illustrator CS2

A client sent me a 32 page pdf that was originally created from a giant Illustrator file. (He doesn't have the original Illustrator file). I want to rebuild it using InDesign, and I need to save elements from each page to use in my new layout.
So am I correct that in order to do this, I have to open the pdf in Illustrator, choose page 1 from the dialog, save it out as an Illustrator file. Then open the pdf again, choose page 2, save it out. And so on, up to page 32? In other words, I need to open the pdf 32 times to get at each page? I can't seem to find anything in my books addressing this. And there is no option for opening it as a multi-page Illustrator document (with page tiling).
Thanks for any ideas!

Do you have a copy of Acrobat 7 or 8 (Pro, not Reader)? If so, open the PDF in Acrobat and from the Document menu select Extract pages making sure you have checked the box that says Extract Pages as Separate Files.

Opening a PDF in Illustrator

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