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I'm trying to open an .AI file in Designer, and all I get is a blank page, no logo. The logo image opens perfectly in Adobe Illustrator. 

I'm attempting to replace Illustrator completely with Designer. But I would need Designer not to balk at files that other programs open (including the online file conversion website Zamzar.com).

The file is attached.

Logo Robofiber v2.ai

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Your file seems to be a PostScript file, not an Illustrator file. How was it saved from AI?

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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1 minute ago, Alfred said:

Your file seems to be a PostScript file, not an Illustrator file. How was it saved from AI?

Sorry, I don't know how it was saved from AI...I got it from a client. All I know is that it has the AI suffix, and other apps open it and Designer doesn't. If it is a PostScript file, why can't Designer open that? I'm just afraid that I'll cancel my Adobe subscription and then won't be able to open files that I could open before.

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18 minutes ago, ThePixelWhisperer said:

Sorry, I don't know how it was saved from AI...I got it from a client. All I know is that it has the AI suffix, and other apps open it and Designer doesn't. If it is a PostScript file, why can't Designer open that? I'm just afraid that I'll cancel my Adobe subscription and then won't be able to open files that I could open before.

What other apps open it?

 

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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23 minutes ago, ThePixelWhisperer said:

Sorry, I don't know how it was saved from AI...I got it from a client. All I know is that it has the AI suffix, and other apps open it and Designer doesn't. If it is a PostScript file, why can't Designer open that? I'm just afraid that I'll cancel my Adobe subscription and then won't be able to open files that I could open before.

Try deleting the .ps extension.

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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10 minutes ago, ThePixelWhisperer said:

Adobe Illustrator and Zamzar.com online file converter are all I checked so far.

We would expect Illustrator to be able to open it. I have no idea how Zamzar.com works.

The important thing for you (and your clients) to understand is that when AI saves a .ai file it can save it in compatibiity mode (may not be the right term) or not. If saved with compatibility mode then there's a copy of the data that Affinity can read in PDF format. If saved without compatibility mode, there's only a proprietary copy of the data, with a format that is not documented for other programs to use.

I don't know the format of .ai files (or of .pdf files) well enough to be able to diagnose your file. Sorry.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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46 minutes ago, ThePixelWhisperer said:

I don't know how it was saved from AI...I got it from a client. All I know is that it has the AI suffix

With your .AI in Affinity I also get an empty page. The same empty page appearance I do get when opening it in Acrobat and macOS preview.app.
Acrobat Distiller can't convert it to a pdf but interrupts with error.log
(%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: obj ]%% Stack: 0 4 %%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%% %%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%)

The preview.app gives the info your .AI was saved from "CorelDRAW X7". – Possibly Corel did not include all necessary data to be compatible?

611197181_aifilefromcorelinfopreview.jpg.9696b88248c3eb6e15762087f6be6c4f.jpg

 

 

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

We would expect Illustrator to be able to open it. I have no idea how Zamzar.com works.

The important thing for you (and your clients) to understand is that when AI saves a .ai file it can save it in compatibiity mode (may not be the right term) or not. If saved with compatibility mode then there's a copy of the data that Affinity can read in PDF format. If saved without compatibility mode, there's only a proprietary copy of the data, with a format that is not documented for other programs to use.

I don't know the format of .ai files (or of .pdf files) well enough to be able to diagnose your file. Sorry.

Thank you for weighing in on this. Designer opens roughly 90% of the 40 .ai files I tried today. That actually may be good enough. I'll be requesting .eps and .svg files from now on, which should also help.

The issue I have with Designer: I know that there's no guarantee that it can open a competitor's file. But as a potential replacement for a competitor, it should be able to. For example, Affinity Photo has no trouble opening and saving PSD files. I feel that Designer should be able to open an Illustrator file, no matter how it was saved.

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50 minutes ago, thomaso said:

With your .AI in Affinity I also get an empty page. The same empty page appearance I do get when opening it in Acrobat and macOS preview.app.
Acrobat Distiller can't convert it to a pdf but interrupts with error.log
(%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: obj ]%% Stack: 0 4 %%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%% %%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%)

The preview.app gives the info your .AI was saved from "CorelDRAW X7". – Possibly Corel did not include all necessary data to be compatible?

611197181_aifilefromcorelinfopreview.jpg.9696b88248c3eb6e15762087f6be6c4f.jpg

 

 

Wow, that was some great sleuthing! Thank you for taking the time to research this. Since I still have Adobe Illustrator, this is classified under "high-class problem." Just an addition to the Designer wishlist that it could open .AI files, no matter how they were saved.

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2 hours ago, ThePixelWhisperer said:

For example, Affinity Photo has no trouble opening and saving PSD files. I feel that Designer should be able to open an Illustrator file, no matter how it was saved.

PSD is partially documented by Adobe. Even with PSD there could be issues importing if one of the undocumented features is used, especially as Adobe adds functions and changes the file format without documenting it further.

And though Designer and Photo can Open or Export PSD files, if the files involve text the text won't be editable. That's another undocumented area where other vendors need to reverse engineer the file format to make that work.

The proprietary part of AI files would also need to be reverse engineered in order for Affinity to support it.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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13 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

PSD is partially documented by Adobe. Even with PSD there could be issues importing if one of the undocumented features is used, especially as Adobe adds functions and changes the file format without documenting it further.

And though Designer and Photo can Open or Export PSD files, if the files involve text the text won't be editable. That's another undocumented area where other vendors need to reverse engineer the file format to make that work.

The proprietary part of AI files would also need to be reverse engineered in order for Affinity to support it.

Good to know. I now see where the Designer feature list includes only "Adobe Illustrator files containing a PDF stream." Since there are indeed other types of Illustrator files, I can't expect Designer to open them all. Too bad, though. I'd love a complete substitute for Illustrator. Thank you for your clarifications!

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