Illustrator CS6

[almaink]

Is this some new nightmare from Adobe? I got an ai file today and instead of what I expected to see when I tried to pace it into an Indesign file I got this message. Since I don't have Illustrator CS6 I couldn't use the file and it put production back a whole day. Good luck with this CC BS if this is the way Adobe plans on doing business.

 

[chad.trent]

It's because the file was saved without "Create PDF Compatible File" checked (obviously). It's not new. It's been doing it since at least CS3 if I recall correctly.

If you don't have the correct version of Illustrator, your only option that I know of is to get in touch with whoever sent the file to you and have them re-save it.

 

[rwillustrator]

It's because the file was saved without "Create PDF Compatible File" checked (obviously). It's not new. It's been doing it since at least CS3 if I recall correctly.

If you don't have the correct version of Illustrator, your only option that I know of is to get in touch with whoever sent the file to you and have them re-save it.

Actually, Illustrator has been doing this since version 9.

Here's a blog post I wrote up a long time ago, but that is still pretty much relevant to understanding why this behavior exists.

Mordy

 

[michaelejahn]

I always wonder why - if someone is sending a file to be placed into InDesign - why would they send an illustrator file - why not send a PDF/X file ?

 

[chad.trent]

That's a good question. Usually if I'm designing a job, I'll often leave the file as an AI and place it into InDesign so that I can click "edit file" in InDesign, the Illustrator file will open, I can edit it, save it, and go back to InDesign and the updated file will be there. But, if I'm sending it out, I always send a PDF.

At my current job we have an Illustrator workflow (packaging industry) so we work almost exclusively in Illustrator and send native Illustrator files to our print vendors, but we discuss it with the prepress department at the printer first and make sure they can handle the files like that. In the rare case that they can't, we provide PDF files.

 

[michaelejahn]

@Chad.trent - well, yeah, if you are sending a file that assumes further edits, you need a business arrangement that all parties agree are compatible ( as in, both parties communicate who is doing what with which apps and which versions of that app ) - in this case, the sender and receiver did not do that. Not sure why you lose 24 hours unless the user was on the other side of the planet.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

One reason for sending an Illustrator file instead of a PDFx is that if there are feathering or other rendered effects then the file is not scalable. The Illustrator file would not be truly scalable outside of illustrator if there are areas that are rasterised (drop shadows, gaussian blurs, complex art etc)