vector file imports as a bitmap?

[gabagoo]

I am trying to open an eps file from Corel. Everything in the file is vectored except these 4 lines of copy which is the same font as the rest of the signage.
These 4 lines keep coming in as a bitmap. Not the type I am used to seeing though. each letter is made up of 1 or 5 pieces so if you took a capital E, it is made up of 4 pieces. When I zoom in I see the pixelation clearly although my client says he sees the vectors on his screen.

This is to weird for me to figure out.... any idea what the heck is going on?
I will say that they do engraving and they considered doing this type as tactile so possibly it had been set up for a raster and some how that information when exported comes back?

 

[royster13]

Probably an eps created in Illustrator...And not all eps files are created equally......

 

[CanuckSigns]

you can try emailing it to me Barry, i will open it in corel and take a look

 

[gabagoo]

I know that they sort of know what they are doing, but I think somehow his designer redrew the type over a bitmap and somehow it is locked in there.
I asked him to send me a pdf file and an ai.

The pdf file was a bitmap completely even with a box around it.

the ai when zoomed into, again i could see the staircase pattern of a bitmap, but this time my path tools lit up so I broke the path and then magically the bitmap was gone replaced with vectors...the type that put a line through all the letters that have insides... I am using that now and dropping them into the places the bitmap resided.

It's always something huh?

 

[Baz]

Allot of times you can "place" files within illustrator. Make sure you uncheck link file. When it is placed in your window .. select the object and click "expand appearance" and you will get vectors out of it. If there are fonts .. you can click on "convert fonts to outlines" in the expand options.

 

[gabagoo]

you can try emailing it to me Barry, i will open it in corel and take a look

OK now Scott tell everyone what you saw in the file and that I am not losing my mind....lol maybe to late for that anyhow:ROFLMAO:

 

[CanuckSigns]

I can vouch, i've never seen a file like it, everything was broken up into small horizontal line segments like a tool path, I couldn't recreate the effect if i tried.

 

[gabagoo]

thank you lol

 

[Bobby H]

It sounds to me like the CorelDRAW file had badly imported artwork brought in from things like PDFs created for smallest file size and Illustrator editing capability eliminated.

I've grabbed logos out of various PDFs created with InDesign, Illustrator or other applications. PDFs created for smallest file sizes in mind will do all sorts of strange things to type, graphics and even embedded images. Many elements will be sliced into numerous pieces. Rectangular shapes, like a letter "I" will be turned into stroked open path segments. And lots of objects will have tons of clipping masks added when the original element in Illustrator or InDesign was a mere shape with a gradient.

Another odd thing: when exporting EPS files certain versions of CorelDRAW will default to simulating complex curves/compound paths by slicing letters and other shapes. Care must be taken to choose the right version of EPS and making sure compound paths are retained. Corel can do other odd things with EPS export, like turn gradient filled objects into complex ones featuring hundreds of color bands.

Those issues of trading CDR and AI files back and forth is just another reason why I use both CorelDRAW and Illustrator frequently. I'd rather give someone needing an Illustrator file something saved natively in Illustrator rather than giving the user an EPS file from CorelDRAW and not being able to tell if the file will import correctly.