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Need Help Illustrator placing problem

crny1

New Member
I ahve a JPG that was emailed to me for use in a sign. Everytime I try to place it I get the error
The file "xxxxxx.jpg" is in a format which cannot be placed.
I have never had a problem like this before. I can open the file in any other program. Eben resave it as a jpg and try again and end up with the same results. Had the client resend the file again and I have the same issue. Any ideas what could be going on?
Thanks
 

IDB Signs

New Member
Hmm, Ai gives me weird glitches like that all the time. Yesterday it absolutely would not ungroup a set of vectors. The Edit tab would give me an 'Undo Ungroup' option as though it had, but nothing happened. Ended up just cutting and pasting in place and it worked after that.

For your issue, maybe try opening it up in Ps and saving it as either a PSD or PDF and then try to place it into Ai.
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
Try: change the color mode, change the image dimensions slightly (you can always change them "back" later).
I think one of those things fixed it for me recently. Even a reboot might clear your issue up.
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
Try opening the JPEG image in Photoshop. Chose "Save As" and save the file as a TIFF image.

Another tip: never re-save a lossy compressed image, such as a JPEG, in a lossy format like JPEG. It further degrades the image. A lossless format like TIFF or PSD is far more acceptable. The situation comes up when a source JPEG image has to be altered in some manner (cropped, graphics added, etc.)
 

Sandman

New Member
Did you try to open the file in Illustrator instead of placing it? Sometimes that works. If it doesn't the PS option is about the best.
 

crny1

New Member
Well is it normal for a jpg to show up as png file type when uploading onto here?
When I upload it then it shows png but yet when its in a folder on my computer in the properties is shows jpg
 
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unclebun

Active Member
It might be a png file that someone renamed as a jpg. Try copying it to a new name, with .png as the extension. Then see if it works in AI.
 

shoresigns

New Member
Well is it normal for a jpg to show up as png file type when uploading onto here?
When I upload it then it shows png but yet when its in a folder on my computer in the properties is shows jpg

I had a hunch that the problem might be something along those lines. Does it open in Illustrator after renaming the extension to .png?

Often images downloaded from the web are accidentally saved as .jpg when in fact they are a .png or something else like .webp. This can be user error but more often it's due to the web server being misconfigured and telling your browser that the image is a .jpg when it isn't. Browsers are built to be smart enough to handle unexpected things like that, so the image displays just fine in the browser, and you don't have any issues until you try to load it into other software like Illustrator.
 

SheBeau

New Member
This might sound weird, but when I’m really stumped as to what kind of a file I have, regardless of it’s extension, I open it in... MS WORD. You get pages of code but the first few lines will hold it’s true species.
 
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