Problem opening AI CS2 files

[vs2399]

hello Friends,

I am using the trial version of Xara Xtreme version 2.0f DL. Unable to open any Illustrator CS2 files. Always get an error "Error in EPS file at line xxx" dialog.

Can this be fixed ?

Thanks,
vs2399

[Soquili]

Hi vs2399,

Xara Xtreme cannot import the newer Illustrator file versions. Adobe changes file formats very often the last few versions and it's difficult for other companies to keep up. If you export your Illustrator file into an older format, say version 8 or maybe 7. It should import into Xtreme.

[Albacore]

I totally agree with Bill, look for the word Legacy when you are exporting. Also watch what type of objects you are including when you export, no meshes, drop shadows, 3D effects, fonts(these should be changed into shapes) and symbols and I could go on but by now you have the idea that it is simple vectors that export. Most of the time if you dont have the right object to export xara will treat it like a bitmap.

[pauland]

Of course, the problem is when you are supplied with files done by someone else, so you don't have the option of choosing the export version.

Unfortunately, illustrator is so dominant, people can be suspicious of professionals doing graphics work and not using illustrator as their main tool.

A few months back I was given artwork produced by illustrator and couldn't read it using Xara. I eventually downloaded the illustrator tryout and that did load it but I didn't have the fnts that had been used. At least it gave me a get-out to use uncompressed Tiff and work with that. It was a bit of a tense situation. The supplier of the artwork had done the logo, but I was doing the website, and we had both put in quotes for the web work. Early exchanges with the customer had shown some frustration (I thought) that the original designer had not got the web side of the project and a few remarks were made at my expense when there were problems with some of the artwork.

I guess that full-time proffessional illustrators are going to have to buy illustrator as well as Xara if you want to exchange work freely with other people.

Paul

[gwpriester]

I guess that full-time proffessional illustrators are going to have to buy illustrator as well as Xara if you want to exchange work freely with other people.

I think if one is working as a professional designer, one has to have access to Illustrator. This is just the cost of doing business.

I have Illustrator CS2 and use it when I need to, but most of my work where appropriate is done in Xara.

The PDF export makes it easier now to get files from Xara into Illustrator with as far as I can see, all Xara effects intact. I can export a PDF or AI file from Illustrator if necessary.

But if we are to compete in the Illustrator-dominated world, the access to Illustrator is a necessity. But then so is a computer, a mouse, etc. But unlike designers who work in Illustrator, Xara users have a lot of superior tools at our disposal.

This make sense?

Gary

[sallybode]

You think that with all the years Illustrator's been around and the big bucks Adobe's been pulling in from it that it would be a better product.

Any time I have to work in Illustrator I am ever so grateful to get back to the programs I love.

There are some new inversions that do not hold when placed, and you still have to get your project together, I have had to pull the elements into Photoshop in order to solve the problem.

The only thing was then the customer wanted me to edit the original design by making the logo twice the size without changing the rest of it.

I used a PowerClip but it could have been done in ClipView had I been using Xara.

[pauland]

snip..
But if we are to compete in the Illustrator-dominated world, the access to Illustrator is a necessity. But then so is a computer, a mouse, etc. But unlike designers who work in Illustrator, Xara users have a lot of superior tools at our disposal.

This make sense?

Gary

Sadly it does. Frustrating isn't it?

[Albacore]

When Gary states "that all effects are still intact" I don't think that he means that all the objects are editable. What he does mean, I think, that they are all scaleable without lose of resolution and most bits can be changed if you want.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Gary,

I think if one is working as a professional designer, one has to have access to Illustrator. This is just the cost of doing business.

No, I disagree. I think I am a 'professional designer' (at least this is what I'm doing for more than 2 decades now ), but I don't have Illustrator. And I know I'll never need it.

For 2D graphics, design and printing all I need is Xara, GhostScript, GSView, in rare cases Acrobat if password protected documents are required, and Freehand in very rare cases. Of course a bitmap editor like the free Gimp or Photo Filtre Studio (a very powerful app if you want to edit photographs, shareware with a very reasonable price tag, they offer the free version without layer capabilities).

Unless you are working in an Illustrator oriented team there is no reason to burn so much money.

If you are in the position to accept Illustrator files, ask to convert the text to shapes and to generate an *.eps or PDF. Then open the file with GhostScript, convert it to *.ai and import it into Xara. If the file is 'clean', it'll work.

In GhostScript you have two options to convert a file to the *.ai format:
Edit
-> convert to vector format
-> ps2ai Adobe Illustrator via ps2ai.ps of GhostScript (this requires that you've installed the ps2ai plug-in)
or
-> plot-ai via GNU libplot

If you'll end up with multiple lines in one object, stacked onto each other and combined, you are busted - this is not your fault or the fault of GhostScript, but the fault of Adobe or the designer who didn't know what he was doing in Illustrator. We've just had this problem last week and had to rebuild several elements completely in xtreme, because the amateur designer at the other end didn't know what he was doing with his vectors in Illustrator...

[jclements]

"If you'll end up with multiple lines in one object, stacked onto each other and combined, you are busted " .... Jens.

Jens, do you know what that person should have done in Illustrator to prevent this? I thought that was just a function of how Illustrator does gradient fills; not something that can be altered.

I have to do work with Illustrator folks from time-to-time.