Importing and Exporting EPS files

[nlstijl]

Hi There,

I purchased Affinity Designer last week and i'm hoping to use it as a replacement for Illustrator in the future. One of the things that i'm testing now is the importing of workfiles, made in Illustrator. The import of AI files goes surprisingly well! All layers that were made can be found in Affinity and non outlined text is editable. I was hoping to archieve the same result with EPS files, but that's not the case: there is only 1 layer with all elements in separated sublayers. And non outlined text is outlined.

When i make a new file in Affinity, export it as an EPS and then open the file in Illustrator (cs 5.5), the elements are visible but the document size is not the same as the root document. Also color swatches are not preserved (same goes for importing EPS and AI to Affinity)

These mentioned things might become a problem when working with other companies who use Illustrator. But i'm new on this, so maybe you can help me with these questions.

Thanks a lot!

Marcellus

[Move Along People]

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[Gabe]

Hi @nlstijl,

Welcome to the forums. 

Is there any specific reason why you export to EPS and not to PDF? EPS is an old, dying format. PDF would offer much better compatibility. 

EPS from Illustrator will most likely have an embedded .AI file which cannot be decoded by Affinity. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[nlstijl]

Hi and thanks a lot for the quick reply. I will definitely check out the PDF export compatibility.

The reason i was focussed on EPS has 2 reasons:

1. I have a lot of EPS files from 15 years of work, either made by me or given by other companies
2. Especially printing agencies are still asking for EPS formats regularly

I must say i wasn't aware that the EPS format will eventually die out but i will look into that for sure. When i convert the EPS work files to PDF or AI (in Illustrator), all layers are intact, so good to know that i can work my way around it.

i will continue exploring the program, so far it all feels really reliable.

Thanks,

Marcellus

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, nlstijl said:

I must say i wasn't aware that the EPS format will eventually die out but i will look into that for sure.

If you do a web search on "PDF vs. EPS" or similar, you will probably find a lot of conflicting, confusing info about this subject. Adobe used to have a very good article about the benefits of using PDF rather than EPS at https://www.adobe.com/print/features/psvspdf/ (& you will occasionally find comments that still link to it) but Adobe removed the article from its site a few years ago for reasons that remain unclear.

Anyway, the gist of it was that Postscript is a page description language, & the EPS ( Encapsulated Postscript File) format is really a computer program written in that language, encapsulated in a file, & originally intended to enable a device with a Postscript interpreter to print the file; while PDF (Portable Document Format) is a format that describes what the document should look like if printed, viewed on a screen, or whatever.

Thus, -- at least in theory -- a PDF is a more 'portable' file format that does not rely on or require any specific printer driver, any PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files or OS X printing dialog extensions (PDE), or the like to view or print it, with reasonable confidence that everyone will see the same thing. The reality is a lot more complicated that that, due to historic traditions in the printing industry, the enormous complexity of the PDF standard, & the different levels of support for both formats among different applications & operating systems.