EPS export creates a box around text with layer effects

[malayali]

I added some text with layer effects (shadow, outer glow) on a gradient background. Here is how it's appearing at 90% zoom.

Exported it into EPS with these settings:

Opened the EPS and there are visible "rectangles" or "box" around the text!

It's more visible in the latter text.

I also noticed this in layers by hiding the background layer.

Tried converting the text to curves. No change in result. I've attached the afdesign and EPS file.

Is this a bug?

TEST.afdesign

TEST.eps

[MickRose]

I suppose it is a bug but my experience is that using overlapping gradient fills with eps or pdf files is asking for trouble. It's best to flatten on export or just make a JPEG out of it. Even if an eps file could be made from this which looked fine on screen there is no guarantee that some RIP further down the printing process wouldn't return the "blockiness" to the print. Someone once gave me a PDF file which looked fine on screen but no matther what I did I couldn't lose the blockiness on my large format postscript printer.

[malayali]

12 minutes ago, MickRose said:

I suppose it is a bug but my experience is that using overlapping gradient fills with eps or pdf files is asking for trouble. It's best to flatten on export or just make a JPEG out of it. Even if an eps file could be made from this which looked fine on screen there is no guarantee that some RIP further down the printing process wouldn't return the "blockiness" to the print. Someone once gave me a PDF file which looked fine on screen but no matther what I did I couldn't lose the blockiness on my large format postscript printer.

In my case, I need it as an EPS itself without flattening for submitting to stock sites.

[malayali]

@Sean P Can you please check this? Any workaround?

[tudor]

On 10/29/2019 at 10:58 AM, malayali said:

In my case, I need it as an EPS itself without flattening for submitting to stock sites.

The EPS file format does not support transparency. That's why the layer effects in AD are automatically flattened when exporting to EPS. There is nothing you can do about it.

For what is worth, your EPS file looks fine in Illustrator. The effects are still flattened into bitmaps, but at least they blend completely into the background.

[Sean P]

On 10/29/2019 at 8:58 AM, malayali said:

In my case, I need it as an EPS itself without flattening for submitting to stock sites.

 

3 hours ago, malayali said:

@Sean P Can you please check this? Any workaround?

Unfortunately as tudor says, the EPS format does not support transparency and filter effects, so unfortunately it has to rasterise those elements, which means it needs to rasterise them with part of the background, and unfortunately complex gradients mean they don't always match perfectly or look seemless.

The issue is that a lot of stock websites expect EPS files to have come from Adobe Illustrator. This is because AI essentially adds a separate stream of data containing a native AI file it can recognise, so when opened back up in AI it is exactly as the author intended and isn't bound to the normal restrictions of the EPS format such as no transparency.

With that said it is interesting that your EPS does look fine in both AI and also when converted to PDF using Acrobat. I will pass it on to development to find out why it is drawing so differently!

[malayali]

1 minute ago, Sean P said:

 

Unfortunately as tudor says, the EPS format does not support transparency and filter effects, so unfortunately it has to rasterise those elements, which means it needs to rasterise them with part of the background, and unfortunately complex gradients mean they don't always match perfectly or look seemless.

The issue is that a lot of stock websites expect EPS files to have come from Adobe Illustrator. This is because AI essentially adds a separate stream of data containing a native AI file it can recognise, so when opened back up in AI it is exactly as the author intended and isn't bound to the normal restrictions of the EPS format such as no transparency.

With that said it is interesting that your EPS does look fine in both AI and also when converted to PDF using Acrobat. I will pass it on to development to find out why it is drawing so differently!

Thank you @Sean P