Since support for Type 1 fonts is ending in January......

[Dov Isaacs]

Opened a file (PDF) that was created mid last year in Illustrator 2020 (windows) on the same machine that it was created on. A portion of the text was missing although it was visible in the preview window and there was no Illustrator font error. Tried the newest version of Illustrator with the same results. Opened in Acrobat Pro and it was fine and the print was complete. Attempted to edit the missing text with no success. Placed the document in Illustrator, text was visible but did not print. When the file was created I did use OTF fonts but the missing part was placed from a previous document and I may have not used OTF fonts for this portion.

HOWEVER, Adobe Illustrator is not, repeat is not, repeat yet again is not a PDF file editor. Contrary to some popular belief regrettably enforced by some Adobe marketing wonks back in the late 1990's, PDF is not the native file format of Adobe Illustrator.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

HOWEVER, Adobe Illustrator is not, repeat is not, repeat yet again is not a PDF file editor. Contrary to some popular belief regrettably enforced by some Adobe marketing wonks back in the late 1990's, PDF is not the native file format of Adobe Illustrator.

Dov how long until Illustrator's native file format is PDF? Thank you for your time.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

Dov how long until Illustrator's native file format is PDF? Thank you for your time.

Note that I am no longer an Adobe employee, but since PDF has features that aren't available in Illustrator and Illustrator has features that aren't part of the PDF specification, I don't see that ever happening.

Note that FWIW, the real native file format for Illustrator is private data stored within a file that is structured like a PDF file. The content of that private data may differ dramatically from what is in the imageable PDF content.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Note that I am no longer an Adobe employee, but since PDF has features that aren't available in Illustrator and Illustrator has features that aren't part of the PDF specification, I don't see that ever happening.

Note that FWIW, the real native file format for Illustrator is private data stored within a file that is structured like a PDF file. The content of that private data may differ dramatically from what is in the imageable PDF content.

So you're saying that Adobe is working on a new program that is made to natively edit PDF's? That'd be insane. Can you @ me when it's released? I'll even be a tester if you need me to.

 

[chriscozi]

So you're saying that Adobe is working on a new program that is made to natively edit PDF's? That'd be insane. Can you @ me when it's released? I'll even be a tester if you need me to.

Just get the Serif Affinity product line.
PDF native right now.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

So you're saying that Adobe is working on a new program that is made to natively edit PDF's? That'd be insane. Can you @ me when it's released? I'll even be a tester if you need me to.

Didn't say that; didn't imply that!

 

[Dov Isaacs]

Just get the Serif Affinity product line.
PDF native right now.

That product may be able to interpret large portions of the ISO PDF specification, especially the portion that is relevant to graphic arts, but its file format is definitely not pure PDF nor is the software capable of handling many facets of features available in PDF.

 

[chriscozi]

That product may be able to interpret large portions of the ISO PDF specification, especially the portion that is relevant to graphic arts, but its file format is definitely not pure PDF nor is the software capable of handling many facets of features available in PDF.

True.
And the features of PDF and Affinity products seem to actively evolve.

 

[modgraph]

HOWEVER, Adobe Illustrator is not, repeat is not, repeat yet again is not a PDF file editor. Contrary to some popular belief regrettably enforced by some Adobe marketing wonks back in the late 1990's, PDF is not the native file format of Adobe Illustrator.

Am not suggestion that Illustrator is an editor for PDF in general but a PDF created from Illustrator and then reopened in Illustrator on the same machine should not cause any issues. Am I wrong in making this assumption? Have done this for years without any issues until the discontinuation of Type 1 fonts.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

Am not suggestion that Illustrator is an editor for PDF in general but a PDF created from Illustrator and then reopened in Illustrator on the same machine should not cause any issues. Am I wrong in making this assumption? Have done this for years without any issues until the discontinuation of Type 1 fonts.

Absolutely not true!

Only PDF files created from Illustrator files for which the Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option is enabled can be readily edited:

Of course, this assumes that any linked content in the original Illustrator file and any fonts used by same are on the system on which the editing is to occur. (Of course, if the original Illustrator file used Type 1 fonts, you need an OpenType CFF version of such fonts – TransType is great at doing accurate conversions of Type 1 fonts to OpenType CFF.

Furthermore, note that the Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option is not available if you create the PDF file to conform to any of the PDF/X standards. (Best professional practice for PDF print publishing workflows is to use PDF/X-4 at this time!)

Note that if you don't use the Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option, you may still be able to “edit” the PDF file Illustrator, but there is a very strong possibility that you may find some limitations and/or corruption of some of the content. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)!

- Dov

 

[modgraph]

Absolutely not true!

Only PDF files created from Illustrator files for which the Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option is enabled can be readily edited:

View attachment 291929

Of course, this assumes that any linked content in the original Illustrator file and any fonts used by same are on the system on which the editing is to occur. (Of course, if the original Illustrator file used Type 1 fonts, you need an OpenType CFF version of such fonts – TransType is great at doing accurate conversions of Type 1 fonts to OpenType CFF.

Furthermore, note that the Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option is not available if you create the PDF file to conform to any of the PDF/X standards. (Best professional practice for PDF print publishing workflows is to use PDF/X-4 at this time!)

Note that if you don't use the Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option, you may still be able to “edit” the PDF file Illustrator, but there is a very strong possibility that you may find some limitations and/or corruption of some of the content. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)!

- Dov

The preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities is always checked but I still had font related issues. Did a little research as the missing text was a placed image saved in the same folder as the PDF saved from Illustrator. The fonts in this file were Type1 and the placed file was linked. Seeing the complete image in the preview window and having it missing when printed or opened does not instill a great deal of confidence when a file is edited. Did a very small scale test with a file that was internally generated with less than 10 Type 1 fonts that would no longer open in Illustrator. This was a rare occasion as the fonts, linked images and actual document file were saved for transport to others. Converted the fonts to OTF, removed the Type 1 fonts from my system and installed the OTF versions of these fonts. When opened received 2 font errors but was able to replace with the correct font which had a slightly different name after conversion with TransType.