Urgent Illustrator Problem

[tommrz]

I have a file built in AI CS6. The file was supplied to us with live type. It is common practice for us to convert live type to outlines to avoid any unforeseen type re-flow at the rip. This particular file added a character at the end of a line that wasn't there before the conversion. I have attached screen shots and the native file. Has anyone seen this happen before and can anyone provide an explanation?

 

[CHM]

Seems strange, only thinh you can do is remove return and reapply it. Than it should be OK

 

[tommrz]

Fixing it is not the problem. Since the job printed and shipped to the customer incorrect, the owner wants to know what happened. It has been fixed and re-run I just have no idea what to tell him as far as why it happened.

 

[chad.trent]

That's a new one for me. I copied the text into a text editor and this is what I got:

WARNINGS: FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY.
AAVOID GETTING INTO EYES. IF THIS HAPPENS, RINSE THOROUGHLY WITH WATER. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.
MODE D’EMPLOI : UTILISEZ-LE POUR VOUS LAVER LES MAINS COMME VOUS LE FAITES AVEC N’IMPORTE QUEL SAVON POUR LES MAINS.

It's putting the extra A in front of "AVOID".

Turning on invisible characters shows a carriage return after "ONLY." with a space after it. Not sure how that's possible. I also can't figure out how that carriage return is letting the line below it fall where it does. Looking at the leading and spacing before and after paragraphs, it shouldn't look like that.

I replaced the carriage return with a soft return and then outlined the text and the extra "A" was not there.

Not sure any of this helps though. Still not sure why it's happening in the first place.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I can confirm that AI CS5 or 6 on the Mac have this issue. I have tried different fonts, problem persists.

Saving the AI file from Illustrator as an Esko Normalized PDF with outlined fonts has the same issue.

Saving the AI as a PDF and using the Acrobat Pro transparency flattener to outline all fonts to paths does not have this issue, everything is OK.

Saving the AI as a PDF and using PitStop Pro 12 to outline the fonts to paths does not have this issue, everything is OK.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Bill W]

You can also select the type box in Illustrator, flatten transparency, and the extra A disappears. Or if you delete the return so Avoid is on the same line as WARNINGS, the A disappears. The interesting thing is if you smear the entire WARNINGS line with the text tool you can see in the selection what looks like a character beyond the end of the sentence. If you then smear the WARNINGS line and the next line with the text tool that space increases.

My guess is that this is just a corrupt file, which happens sometimes as we all know. One of the checks I used to ask my employees to do when I ran the prepress department was to lay the original type over the outlined version and check closely for any changes. I know this can be a bit time consuming, but one needs to remember that spinning hard drives are really just domains of very small magnetic domains that have either a positive or negative charge and sometimes they get confused.

I hope someone from Adobe would be interested in looking closely at this file. I have seen a lot of type since I started working on the MAC in 1991, including type from early versions of Illustrator, Pagemaker, Freehand, Quark, Framemaker, Corel Draw, and I have never seen something like this.

 

[rich apollo]

The extra character is there - I can select it. In Illustrator CC when I select it the info box gives the correct Unicode designation for a letter "A". I'm trying to figure out what has been done to the character to keep it from being seen.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Have you contacted Adobe about this?

 

[tommrz]

I was in the process of on-line chat with adobe support but needed to get the serial number from IT before they would go any further. I have not had a chance to get back in touch with them but I intend to. I appreciate everyone taking a look at this for me.

 

[Chasfinch]

I have had this issue before. Well I should say similar issue, It was a copy and paste from a XLS out of open office. Character was added that you did not see until outlining.

 

[tommrz]

interesting, i will ask the folks that did the design on the file what their workflow is. It is entirely possible that copy is supplied to them by a legal department or an editors office and do the copy/paste into their art files.
Was the character visible in XL before the paste?

 

[Chasfinch]

no character was visable. I thought it was just one of those things that only happens to me
glad to know I was not crazy