Batch AI to PDF

[Kido]

Hello


We have many customers delivering their files as illustrator, but non-pdf-compatible.
Is there a way to batch an AI to PDF conversion?

I would like a hotfolder-based the most, but is it realistic?
So not, are there other possibilities to automate?



Many thx

[mordygolding]

You could easily create an action that will open and resave each file with the PDF option checked (or perhaps even better, open the file and save it as a PDF/X-1a file). Once you've recorded the Action, you can use the Batch command to perform the action on an entire folder of files.

Mordy

[Colorblind]

I may be wrong but I think that whatever you do, your files will have to be opened first to ensure they are OK (missing fonts, missing links, wrong color space...) before performing a batch PDF conversion.

[Shawn]

Have you checked out the sample scripts that Adobe supplies in the Illustrator folder under "Scripting/Sample Scripts/" ?

We've used the Save as PDF script here to batch save Illustrator files as PDFs. It's not quite a hotfolder based script, but still works pretty well. As colorblind mentioned, you still need to make sure that all fonts and images are linked.

You also may need to edit slightly to have it use specific PDF settings for your workflow. You can either change the settings within the script or to change it to use specific presets. To use your presets, delete most of the final section that starts with getPDFOptions and make it match the text below, replacing the type [your joboptions here] with the exact name of your standard joboptions.

Shawn


-----

function getPDFOptions()
{
// Create the PDFSaveOptions object to set the PDF options
var pdfSaveOpts = new PDFSaveOptions();

// Setting PDFSaveOptions properties. Please see the JavaScript Reference
// for a description of these properties.
// Add more properties here if you like
pdfSaveOpts.pDFPreset = '[your joboptions here]';


// uncomment to view the pdfs after conversion.
// pdfSaveOpts.viewAfterSaving = true;


return pdfSaveOpts;
}

[leonardr]

We have many customers delivering their files as illustrator, but non-pdf-compatible.

Given that Adobe Illustrator files _ARE_ PDF files and have been since AI 10 - unless your customers are using VERY old versions of Illustrator, that's simply not possible.

Can you post an example document or explain further??

Is there a way to batch an AI to PDF conversion?

You can use the Actions feature of Illustrator to do this.

[MGB_LE]

Have you tried a simple batch rename to .pdf, since as leonardr posted, AI is PDF format, under the hood?

[phantasm]

Given that Adobe Illustrator files _ARE_ PDF files and have been since AI 10 - unless your customers are using VERY old versions of Illustrator, that's simply not possible.

There is an option to make Ai files PDF compatible or not when saving. I sometimes turn off this option for very large files as save times can increase hugely - and the file size doubles as you are effectively saving two files (the Ai artwork and the PDF) within a wrapper.

But I would have expected users who are sending final artwork to printers to re-enable this option.

Regardless, Actions are an obvious way forward. But as Colorblind mentioned and Shawn confirmed, a certain amount of checking is advised. However, and I've never used this particular feature personally, if you open the Ai Actions (panel pull-down menu) > Batch... window, you will notice at the bottom the options to "Stop for Errors" or "Log Errors to File". I presume that Ai will flag an error in batch mode if, say, a font is missing. Still not sure I'd trust this fully, though...

Good luck!

[CHM]

Given that Adobe Illustrator files _ARE_ PDF files and have been since.

This is new for me leonard, as long you dont save your Illustrator with compatible pdf, there is no pdf there. Or am I wrong?

[davec]

Have you tried creating a hot folder that Distiller watches?

[leonardr]

This is new for me leonard, as long you dont save your Illustrator with compatible pdf, there is no pdf there. Or am I wrong?

You are wrong...

What it does is create a PDF file _BUT_ instead of creating actual PDF page content that matches the Illustrator page content, it just puts some instructional text on the page.

Drag one on Acrobat to see....