EPS image stating 'No Objects Selected'

[AutoEvo]

I'm struggling on this one... I've had a new logo designed and am using XWD9P. Before starting this project, the designer sent his logo to me in EPS format to make sure it would open OK in the program. It did. Now he's designed our new logo and sent it over as an EPS file, XWD9P doesn't want to acknowledge its existence. There is no 'error message' coming up. When selecting the object to import (and I've tried the drag and drop method as well) the only item that comes up on the bottom of the Xara screen is 'no objects selected' which clearly isn't true.

if someone is able to help me then that'd be great. The EPS file has been uploaded to dropbox so if someone could pm their email address I'd be happy to invite you to the dropbox thingy to have a look at the file and see why this issue may be cropping up.

thanks in advance
Autoevo

[AutoEvo]

anyone have any thoughts? I've noted that the designers original logo states 'importing illustrator CS2 EPS' and this version works. So I reported that back to my designers who states he has Illustrator Creative Cloud which came after CS6... so he's back saved the file as a CS2 EPS file and still nothing!

this is so flaming frustrating..... what's stopping WD9P from recognising the EPS files?!

[AutoEvo]

just to update the above... my designer opened his old version of CS and saved the file. Now it gets the error message "error detected in EPS file at line 8515 [83]"

any idea of what that error means?

[Christine Farrelly]

It would be best if he could send it as a PDF.

Christine

[AutoEvo]

hi christine thanks for that. We've tried pdf but the colours and shading go all out the window which is a pain in the backside and inappropriate for our website... hence why we need the eps.

[gwpriester]

I suspect that the colors and shading are going to be the same in the EPS because of the difference in color space between illustrator and Xara.

One thing you could consider is a large high resolution RGB PNG file with a transparent background. You can scale this down as needed and the color space will be RGB. But it is not a vector file.

[AutoEvo]

Hi all thank you for your help. Through trial and error we appear to have solved the immediate issue if not the actual issue itself. That is to say we've got EPS to work without fully appreciating why.

My designer had a contact you had an older version of Illustrator... namely Illustrator CS3. He then sent his Illustrator Cloud EPS file created for us to be opened and saved in the CS3 version of Illustrator and hey presto... EPS shows without errors or problems with colour or space.

So it would appear that, on the face of it, unless anyone can demonstrate otherwise, perhaps the issue is that Xara WD9P doesn't/cannot communicate fully with Illustrator Creative Cloud, even when that software tries to save the EPS file as an earlier version such as CS2, 3etc...

[gwpriester]

Who knows?

Glad it worked out though.

[mwenz]

hi christine thanks for that. We've tried pdf but the colours and shading go all out the window which is a pain in the backside and inappropriate for our website... hence why we need the eps.

I had a look at AutoEvo's files.

A few things...Sort of random thoughts...

1. Once the EPS file is opened in CS6 (one was made in CC and could not open in AICS6), the document mode is RGB, but colors are defined in a mix of RGB and CMYK. The problematic colors are defined in CMYK.
2. The PDF version was exported to PDF using a CMYK profile.
3. Converting the EPS file to PDF using Acrobat maintains the CMYK colors as defined in the EPS.
4. The CMYK colors are correctly mapped in Xara. The main color in question is a very dark Navy. It is really a very rich black, heavy on the CM components, k is 65%. For print, this actually imports and outputs correctly (as the colors are defined).
5. A newly generated PDF using an RGB profile opens in XDP displaying the correct RGB values. It looks correct on-screen and exports to RGB image types correctly.
6. As the file exports to EPS out of CS3 and not CS6 or CC, I am thinking there have been changes to color handling when exporting to EPS from the later versions. Likely proper changes. I think CS3 is forcing the CMYK colors to RGB in its export. I no longer have AI prior to 5.5 installed and cannot check. It is also possible the person who exported it forced the change. I dunno.

There are more thoughts, but I haven't had enough coffee.

Before I go, I would add that Xara really, really needs to update the AI/EPS import/export filters. The CC EPS version opened fine in PagePlus, and once converted to curves was fully editable. Either way (simply placed or converted to curves) the file output correctly to both PDFs and images properly.