opening Adobe Illustrator files in Affinity Publisher

[Cedar]

I am unable to opening Adobe Illustrator files in Affinity Publisher, or incapable because I lack the knowledge.

My barcode supplier has sent me barcodes in .ai format which, as far as I can tell, should open in Affinity Publisher.

I created a blank spread and tried File>>>Open. Affinity Publisher creates a new tab and spread automatically, ignoring the one I made, and the file name comes up on the new tab; however, I get nothing: no barcode. The white spread remains a white spread. 

And I tried File>>>Place onto an existing spread: the barcode shows, meaning that it is listed on the 'layers' panel, but nothing shows on my spread.

Some other file types have opened no problem: PNG TIFF PDF AFFPUB

Any suggestions?

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, Cedar said:

My barcode supplier has sent me barcodes in .ai format which, as far as I can tell, should open in Affinity Publisher.

The Affinity apps can’t understand the proprietary *.ai format. By default, documents are saved from Adobe Illustrator with the ‘Create PDF-compatible file’ option enabled, and when you attempt to open the resultant file in APub it simply reads the PDF stream. This will obviously fail if there is no PDF stream included in the file.

[Cedar]

Thank you, @Alfred although this 'affinity.help' posting which states "You can import Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop files into your Affinity app." seems to say it can be done, but it did not work for me; therefore, I believe you.

Maybe an Affinity Publisher programmer will read our discussion and clarify or modify the 'affinity.help' posting. Note 'publisher2' is stated in the link, meaning the linked information applies to (or should apply to) Affinity Publisher 2:

https://affinity.help/publisher2/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/GetStarted/importAdobe.html&title=Importing other Adobe documents

[PaulEC]

 

20 minutes ago, Cedar said:

this 'affinity.help' posting which states "You can import Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop files into your Affinity app." seems to say it can be done,

Looking at the link you posted the position seems pretty clear: "When importing Adobe Illustrator files, Affinity uses the embedded PDF in the file rather than the raw Illustrator data." (Three lines below the line you quoted!)

[Cedar]

16 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

"When importing Adobe Illustrator files, Affinity uses the embedded PDF in the file rather than the raw Illustrator data." (Three lines below the line you quoted!)

Thank you @PaulEC for your interest in trying to help me, but that means zero to me. If I am supposed to be able to open the file by going to File>>>Open as the 'affinity.help' post states, I expect the file image to appear, and it does not. What you posted is, to me, just a statement of how Affinity Publisher works in the background, which I am not interested in. Maybe it is not that, but that is how I view it because it is dropped in there just as a statement; that statement has no action associated with it. It does not tell me what to do to make the file I am trying to open useful. So, it is NOT 'pretty clear' to me. I guess everyone knows what that statement means except me, and I should purchase other software where I receive real help.

[PaulEC]

You said:

3 hours ago, Cedar said:

...clarify or modify the 'affinity.help' posting.

I was just pointing out that there is nothing to "clarify or modify"; the Help is quite clear that Affinity can only open Illustrator files if they have embedded PDF data.

Have you checked with your supplier that the files you were sent were created with embedded PDF data? If not then that is the most obvious reason that you are having a problem opening these files. It would also be a good idea to try opening other .ai files to see if you also have the same problem with them. If you can't open any Illustrator files then obviously there is some other problem, but obeying Occam's Razor, it is as well to look at the simplest solution to a problem first! 

[Alfred]

7 hours ago, PaulEC said:

the Help is quite clear that Affinity can only open Illustrator files if they have embedded PDF data

I’m not sure that it’s as clear as it could be! The Help says “Affinity uses the embedded PDF in the file”, implying that an AI file will always include an embedded PDF. I think the Help should state explicitly that not all AI files meet this requirement.

[PaulEC]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

implying that an AI file will always include an embedded PDF.

Fair point! 

[KarinC]

You can get ISBN bar codes free from many places. I get mine from kindlepreneur but there are others. I can choose to have supplied as pdf or png. I find it strange that a barcode supplier only supplies it as an .ai file.