Illy can't open .eps file?

usually when I get that error, I open a new drawing and place it into it. 9 times out of 10 this will work.

 

Could be the designer is using a newer version of AI than you, like CS4

 

I've had that happen. Usually happens with a file that was uploaded to an ftp server, and the connection got dropped before the file was finished uploading.

 

Bad file upload/download. Try re-downloading the files. If that doesn't work, have him RE-SAVE them, and then re-upload.


Gary

 

Did it happen to be an ftp situation? If that happens to be the problem, it would happen to both files if they were uploading at the same time.

 

If the file had a Stuffit extension it was most likely created on a Mac since Stuffit is like Zip but for Mac computers. It would have an .SIT extension. Like a ZIP file it must be unstuffed. Since Mac files are often saved without extensions, it is entirely possible that someone along the way thought all they had to do was to rename the file with an EPS extension and it would magically become an EPS. Or it is possible you are dealing with an EPS generated in Photoshop which is a whole different flavor of EPS.

To take a different approach, try:

1. Opening the file in a text editor and see if there is anything that resembles an English plain text header. Even if not, there may be some clues there as to what program saved the file.

2. Opening the file in Photoshop. If it's a Photoshop EPS it may just be recognized.

3. Changing the extension to some common image formats like JPG and TIF to see if that makes them recognizable.

here is an example of the first eight lines of an Illustrator EPS file:

By contrast, an EPS saved from Photoshop is in code until you get to the fifth line where it says:

 

look in the .sit file for another EPS file thats bigger. for some reason mac's put a second copy of the files with a . or something in front of the file name, this file is usually very small and is not the correct one to open.

 

It might also be a MAC to PC thing. I have had that before with Stuffit Expander files not extracting well on a PC. Get the original files not zipped and see if that does it.

 

Good posts by all, ++ for fred's idea. That's an old school and highly effective preflight trick to diagnose EPS errors.

 

If there are two files in the Stuffit, then one is the Mac resource fork file and the other is the Mac data fork file. The data fork is the one you want and will be larger than the resource fork as noted by longbeachmichael. What is confusing is that these files will usually have identical names so saving them both causes one to overwrite the other on a PC.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine the larger of the two, save it without saving the other by dragging and dropping it, and then change it's extension to EPS. Then see if that will open in Illustrator.

 

Too Funny!

 

I had the same issue last week. From a PC to my Mac. They originally send it as an attached eps. I suggested that they zip it as occasionally, code does get messed up in email.
When that didn't work I asked them to re-save as a straight .ai file. They attached that one and everything opened fine.
No answer here but this wasn't the first time it's happened to me either.