ShaunG Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Newbie here. Why does a PDF Options dialogue box come up every time I open up an adobe illustrator file? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Hi and welcome to the forums @ShaunG, Because Affinity cannot read the AI file format, but frequently AI has a PDF 'stream' that is readable and that is what is opened by Affinity Designer/Publisher/Photo. You'll need to be sure that the AI files are saved with the PDF stream (or what ever it is actually called) turned on for saving in Illustrator. ShaunG 1 Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 4 hours ago, ShaunG said: Newbie here. Why does a PDF Options dialogue box come up every time I open up an adobe illustrator file? Try rename *.ai to *.pdf :-) Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunG Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 I'm not sure why I would rename to pdf. I want to edit the file as an adobe illustrator file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bruce Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Just now, ShaunG said: I'm not sure why I would rename to pdf. I want to edit the file as an adobe illustrator file. Then you will need Illustrator, there is a limit to how much information Affinity can get from a proprietary file format. We are stuck with what is available in the PDF stream in the Illustrator file. ShaunG 1 Quote Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear. I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunG Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 16 hours ago, Old Bruce said: Hi and welcome to the forums @ShaunG, Because Affinity cannot read the AI file format, but frequently AI has a PDF 'stream' that is readable and that is what is opened by Affinity Designer/Publisher/Photo. You'll need to be sure that the AI files are saved with the PDF stream (or what ever it is actually called) turned on for saving in Illustrator. Thanks, Bruce. Great info. I was under the impression that you could edit ai files in Affinity Designer. This would mean that I could save as ai, and that the edited ai file could then be opened in Adobe Illustrator and all would be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 3 minutes ago, ShaunG said: Thanks, Bruce. Great info. I was under the impression that you could edit ai files in Affinity Designer. This would mean that I could save as ai, and that the edited ai file could then be opened in Adobe Illustrator and all would be good. It can edit them, if AI saved them in compatibility mode. But it is limited to reading the data that AI put into the compatibility PDF within the file. It cannot output AI files. You would need to export as PDF and then read that into AI. ShaunG 1 Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunG Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 minute ago, Old Bruce said: Then you will need Illustrator, there is a limit to how much information Affinity can get from a proprietary file format. We are stuck with what is available in the PDF stream in the Illustrator file. Gotcha. Again, great info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunG Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 minute ago, walt.farrell said: It can edit them, if AI saved them in compatibility mode. But it is limited to reading the data that AI put into the compatibility PDF within the file. It cannot output AI files. You would need to export as PDF and then read that into AI. If you export as pdf wouldn't you loose the layers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 16 minutes ago, ShaunG said: If you export as pdf wouldn't you loose the layers? I've no idea. But if you want to exchange with AI it may be your best choice. Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.7, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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