Designer EPS files to AI

[evtonic3]

If I create an EPS file in AD it opens fine in AI except that it gives it a way bigger canvas than the actual document is. Is there a way to avoid this from happening?

[firstdefence]

From a few of the tests I've just done, illustrator will open the EPS file in the last document size created, so, in my case it was A4. Illustrator opened any EPS file as an A4 document.

To test this... 

1. In Affinity Designer I created a File 1000 x 1000px @ 72DPI, made a circle and put a 10px stroke around the edge of that document (see Fig1.)
2. I opened Illustrator and opened the EPS file I had just created, it opened within the bounds of an A4 document and an A4 was the last document size I had used, so I closed the document down without saving.
3. I created a new document with Illustrator the same dimensions as the EPS file 1000 x 1000 @ 72DPI and then closed it down without saving.
4. I opened the EPS file again and this time it opened as you would expect it to, with the 10px Stroke at the edges of the document bounds.

Seems odd that Illustrator doesn't honour a documents size and overrides this by using the last document size used. maybe a setting I'm missing somewhere but I can't find it at the moment.

Fig 1.

[stokerg]

25 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

• In Affinity Designer I created a File 1000 x 1000px @ 72DPI, made a circle and put a 10px stroke around the edge of that document (see Fig1.)
• I opened Illustrator and opened the EPS file I had just created, it opened within the bounds of an A4 document and an A4 was the last document size I had used, so I closed the document down without saving.
• I created a new document with Illustrator the same dimensions as the EPS file 1000 x 1000 @ 72DPI and then closed it down without saving.
• I opened the EPS file again and this time it opened as you would expect it to, with the 10px Stroke at the edges of the document bounds.

Just carried out the same test and got the same results, very strange.  I feel i'm missing something obvious but i don't know AI well enough to know what that might be

[firstdefence]

I've had a look within Adobe Illustrators settings and I cannot find anything that would change this, like having a checkbox that asks "Use last document Dimensions" 

[stokerg]

3 hours ago, firstdefence said:

I've had a look within Adobe Illustrators settings and I cannot find anything that would change this, like having a checkbox that asks "Use last document Dimensions" 

Well i found reference to this issue on 'another' forum and the reply stated 'EPS files are not designed to be opened or edited.  Apparently  the correct method to make use of them in AI is by using File>Place instead of File>Open...  

[MikeW]

In general, AI will open an EPS using the page size of the last saved AI file.

So if I create a 10" x 10" AI file, then close that document (or even exit AI), then open an EPS, my page size will be 10" by 10" regardless of the art size. It's the way it's always been.

Mike

[AndyQ]

On 6/6/2018 at 11:21 PM, MikeW said:

In general, AI will open an EPS using the page size of the last saved AI file.

So if I create a 10" x 10" AI file, then close that document (or even exit AI), then open an EPS, my page size will be 10" by 10" regardless of the art size. It's the way it's always been.

Mike

I've just come across this today, with exported EPS files opening in Illustrator at the "last Illustrator document size" rather than the EPS size. Those same EPS files will rasterise in Photoshop at their exported aspect ratio, and at their correct size if the dpi setting for import is set to match. They also "place" at their correct size in InDesign.  Since there's no "AI export" that only leaves PDF as an option for interchange, but that has it's own issues.  There must be some sort of setting that can be written to an EPS that will prompt illustrator to open it as a document at the  intended size - that sizing information is already in the file. Illustrator's own EPS files can be opened at their original size so this must be data that can be included in the EPS filetype.

[loukash]

7 hours ago, AndyQ said:

exported EPS files opening in Illustrator at the "last Illustrator document size" rather than the EPS size.

A workaround I just found:

1. place a placeholder rectangle of the artboard/page size with a "micro" stroke width e.g. 0.001 pt and color tint set to 0
2. export
3. open EPS in AI and adjust the artboard to the placeholder rectangle size; with snapping turned on it's done with a few clicks
4. optionally delete the placeholder rectangle

"Color tint zero" being the crucial step if you want the rectangle remain invisible: a blank rectangle with no stroke or fill values may remain unseen by AI (tested with CS5), whereas transparency values may cause unnecessary rasterization on export.

[Nedde]

Still nobody found out how it works? It is 4 years now and still I cannot import an EPS correctly into AI. Thank you!

[tudor]

3 hours ago, Nedde said:

Still nobody found out how it works? It is 4 years now and still I cannot import an EPS correctly into AI. Thank you!

TL;DR This can only be fixed by Adobe.

Detailed information:

The generic EPS file format does not contain information about a page/media/artboard size. Therefore, when opening an EPS created in a 3rd party application*,  Illustrator will create an artboard the size of the last one used.

However, EPS files do contain a "bounding box" property, which is equal to the page size you define in Affinity Designer. Adobe could update Illustrator to use that bounding box value when creating the artboard holding the EPS graphics. (btw, that's what Affinity Designer does when it opens an EPS).

* Okay, but then why an EPS created in Illustrator will open with the correct artboard size? That's because all EPS files created in Illustrator have a full AI file embedded. So Illustrator is actually reading the AI part of the file, not the generic EPS one.

[Nedde]

Wow, thank you for the fast and good explication!!! It’s a shame, but okay, now I am happy again using Affinity
Well, what I do now is use my old Adobe Version (CS6, I bought it years ago, so why not reanimate it?) to open the (Affinity-) EPS file, then go to OBJECT > Artboards > Fit to Artwork Bounds. So at least I can shrink the canvas to the picture bounds that is much faster than correct the canvas itself. It works for me, because my client does not expect an exact canvas size. Maybe this would help others ...?