Publisher to Illustrator

[BillJ]

Our house artist who has very little training is having an issue importing Publisher files into Illustrator. When she imports them, the text comes up as rectangles. the photos seem to import without problem. Te person who created them has passed away so i don't know exactly how they were created. The only solution I have found online is Pub2Id, but it is expensive and for the few times we have to deal with this management won't pay for it.

I'm an Rip and equipment guy so I'm not an expert on this. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[davidmwe]

Publisher to InDesign converter

Publisher to InDesign converter

How about Publisher to InDesign?

I do not know of any Publisher to Illustrator converters, but we, Markzware, have a Publisher to InDesign conversion tool which may assist you?
See:
Markzware PUB2ID v3 (Convert Publisher to InDesign) Product Page

Friendly Regards,
David Dilling
Markzware (makers of PUB2ID)

 

[DCurry]

Your best bet if you don't want to buy a plugin is to get the Publisher file into an intermediate format that Illustrator can read. You will still likely have text problems, though.

For example, if you can make a PDF from the Publisher file, you would be able to open it in Illustrator. If the fonts are embedded in the PDF and active on the computer you are using Illustrator on, you might get lucky and everything will look fine. If there are heavy text edits to be done, it may be problematic because the text will no longer be words and paragraphs but just collections of letters.

Maybe you can find someone who has the plugin and pay for them to convert the art for you. At $199 for the plugin, though, it could pay for itself in just a few uses.

 

[DCurry]

Another thought - if you do not need to edit, you could just place the aforementioned PDF as a linked graphic.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Yes it is cheaper to pay for the pluggin than the therapy of the prepress person who will have to hack their way into what publisher can create. I remember trying to clean up a relatively simple graphic, a text with a gradient shaded triangle in the a template background. We were close to print on a large project and this was an add that was to be included… the biggest problem was I didn't have the font and thought it could be solved. Liability and who is responsible if the output differs from what the customer means was what they handed you could also be an issue. Good luck.

 

[almaink]

I have the plugin but it's not all that great. Publishers idea of transparency doesn't convert well, and there are issues with fonts as well. The Pub to PDF then fix the PDF using Pit Stop or another editor is easier for most Pub files IMO.

 

[DCurry]

Another question for the original poster - why does it really need to be in Illustrator? I'm sure I'll catch some heat for this statement, but it is possible to get perfectly decent output from Publisher directly, as long as it is a more recent version (last 5 years). At my old shop we got Pub files on a fairly regular basis and while it takes a little bit of learning to figure out exactly what needs to be done, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. PDF is the great equalizer - do as much as you can in the native app, then make a PDF and finish off any necessary editing with PitStop or Acrobat's built-in editing tools.

The key to remember with Publisher is that by default it thinks you want to be in RGB mode, so before generating the PDF you should change it to CMYK mode or whatever you need. For better RGB-to-CMYK conversion, leave it as RGB and convert the PDF to the proper color space.

I'll take a Publisher file over PowerPoint any day.

 

[mattbeals]

that sounds familiar...

 

[maynardsayswhat]

Another thought - if you do not need to edit, you could just place the aforementioned PDF as a linked graphic.

This is how I survived a short stint helping out a friends copy shop which dealt mainly with nonprofessional folks. Also works for PrintMaster Gold =)

 

[FlexoGrunt]

We typically have the customer export a PDF then place it into Illustrator (as a link). Once it's placed I use flatten transparency which will make almost everything into vectors for you (including embedded fonts that you may not have). It works great for our segment.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Here is a post by Adobe's Dov Isaacs on the advisability of using Illustrator for this purpose:

http://printplanet.com/forums/adobe...or-post116545&highlight=dov+isaacs#post116545

Al

[EDIT:]http://printplanet.com/forums/adobe/18564-opening-pdfs-illustrator
It is the 07-08-2009, 09:46 PM post:

On behalf of Adobe ...

Adobe Illustrator is not, repeat is not, repeat yet again is not a general purpose PDF editor!!!!!

(To be honest, I do understand why some people think to the contrary. Some very misguided Adobe marketing folks over ten years ago wrongly trumpeted the alleged "fact" that PDF was Adobe Illustrator's native file format. In fact it isn't and never was. Illustrator's native file format is buried as private data inside what looks like a PDF file!!!)

The only PDF files that Adobe Illustrator can safely edit are PDF files that are created by the save as PDF feature of a version of Adobe Illustrator equal or less than the version you are editing with and the "preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" option was checked when the PDF file was created. When such PDF files are created, two copies of the content are put into the PDF file - the first copy is PDF content and the second content is "private Illustrator data" which represents the content as processed in Illustrator including layer information, swatches, group information, etc. When you open a PDF file in Adobe Illustrator, an attempt is made to find that private Illustrator data. That is what is safely opened in Illustrator. If that private Illustrator data does not exist, Adobe Illustrator attempts to interpret the PDF data and convert it into equivalent Illustrator objects. Not all PDF objects are part of the Illustrator imaging model and there are some incompatibilities. For example, with the exception of linked placed objects, every graphical object in a PDF file must be in the same color space. Thus, if your non-Illustrator PDF file has multiple color spaces, it will converted to only one color space. Folks, that is a very lossy operation! Likewise, character encodings may change and may be corrupted. And some objects in your non-Illustrator PDF may be significantly modified in ways you may not find acceptable and/or discarded.

Bottom line ... in an emergency, use of Illustrator to modify or extract PDF content may work, but it is definitely not something that is valid use in a generalized PDF print publishing workflow for examining or otherwise editing a PDF file. And if you ignore this advise, you will get what you justly deserve.

- Dov

 

[BillJ]

Thanks for all the input. These documents are simple sell sheets where preserving the fonts isn't an issue. the real issue is having to retype all the text. I will have her try the PDF method and see how it works.

 

[DCurry]

Here is a post by Adobe's Dov Isaacs on the advisability of using Illustrator for this purpose...

Yes, I am fully aware of the pitfalls of using Illustrator as a PDF editor. However, if one is well informed regarding the dangers and is careful, it can often get the job done in a pinch. It really depends on the users needs and knowledge. I personally would not open a PDF in Illustrator for editing, but that is because I have other tools at my disposal. Someone who does not have those other tools might not have much of a choice when the job just needs to be done and out the door.