Need Help What happened to my file? Never seen this before.

[CSOCSO]

Hey. I have a file that i have worked on in illustrator a year ago. I saved it as a PDF and I wanted to grab a logo from the design and several parts of the file got infused in a weird way.

The vehicle outline was on a different layer. I did not rasterize any part of the design. The background was made with circles and now everything is clipped and rasterized to those circles. Even the outline was on a different layer. When I open the file I can click on the circles as you can see in the images. When I pull the circles apart, they contain all the original layers but rasterized and clipped. If i release the clipping the image is still rasterized. There isn't any layers. ( square images after releasing the clip) Any ideas?

 

[jochwat]

First guess is that, since you saved it as a PDF, you may have saved it under a setting like "Smallest File Size" and/or you didn't check the "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities", or... both... Does this seem likely?

 

[CSOCSO]

First guess is that, since you saved it as a PDF, you may have saved it under a setting like "Smallest File Size" and/or you didn't check the "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities", or... both... Does this seem likely?

I just tried to save another pdf file without preserving the editing capabilities and after closing the file and reopening it I was still able to take apart the file after releasing clipping mask. It did not destroy the design. So I don't think that was the issue. ( Also had the fast web browsing turned on and the acrobat layers unchecked) can't make it any worse still couldn't replicate the issue

 

[Adam Vreeke]

Your image got flattened into 1 layer due to what jochwat said. However going from vector to raster is a bit of a mystery to me, although I would suspect that it too was in a setting that was chosen, a preset or what have you. Any chance of you uploading the file? I would be interested in taking a look at it.

 

[Boudica]

I agree with what's been suggested... something goofy happened when saving the PDF. Perhaps the file you tested was much simpler than the one where the bad things happened?

 

[CSOCSO]

Your image got flattened into 1 layer due to what jochwat said. However going from vector to raster is a bit of a mystery to me, although I would suspect that it too was in a setting that was chosen, a preset or what have you. Any chance of you uploading the file? I would be interested in taking a look at it.

It's not one layer. If you look at the images you can see that my design got infused into multiple circles that I had as a background for the design. It's like 5-6 circles and i can release the clipping mask on those but it looks like the original design got rasterized that masked into multiple circles. Believe me I have not done that. That is not a 1 click error. And the outline of the car is present on multiple circles. it makes no sense. The design was on a different locked layer. If I rasterize the image it should be 1 single image. Not this weird Frankenstein stuff.

 

[richsweeney]

I have seen that happen if you are using a different version of AI

 

[BKBRO]

Hey. I have a file that i have worked on in illustrator a year ago. I saved it as a PDF and I wanted to grab a logo from the design and several parts of the file got infused in a weird way.

The vehicle outline was on a different layer. I did not rasterize any part of the design. The background was made with circles and now everything is clipped and rasterized to those circles. Even the outline was on a different layer. When I open the file I can click on the circles as you can see in the images. When I pull the circles apart, they contain all the original layers but rasterized and clipped. If i release the clipping the image is still rasterized. There isn't any layers. ( square images after releasing the clip) Any ideas? View attachment 153111 View attachment 153112 View attachment 153113

Saving out of AI as a .pdf often creates issues, including seemingly arbitrary grouping and nesting (often several layers of this mess), and dividing lines of text into multiple individual segments of letters. AI's inconsistent success embedding raster images can also come into play. In our AI workflow we never save as a .pdf unless the output device requires it, and Save As the .pdf, retaining the original .ai formatted file. Any files we receive in .pdf format that are going to require vector editing we open and Save As .ai to work on them. This is similar to our Photoshop workflow, where we work off of a master layered .psd file, and only flatten, Save As .jpg, etc. as needed. Yes, it can be confusing to have multiple similar files, but with a consistent, mindful file naming protocol it isn't at all difficult to manage.

 

[Adam Vreeke]

It's not one layer. If you look at the images you can see that my design got infused into multiple circles that I had as a background for the design. It's like 5-6 circles and i can release the clipping mask on those but it looks like the original design got rasterized that masked into multiple circles. Believe me I have not done that. That is not a 1 click error. And the outline of the car is present on multiple circles. it makes no sense. The design was on a different locked layer. If I rasterize the image it should be 1 single image. Not this weird Frankenstein stuff.

Would you be able to provide the file at all? For the most part we can only guess as to what happened based off of a few pictures. At least for me I need to dig into the file to be able to tell what happened, and if there is any fixing it.

 

[CSOCSO]

Illustrator is still the same version. I created the file. Saved it as pdf from the get go.

here is the file:https://drive.google.com/file/d/14OyUjk0JS837wIgPNkRHlr0NfMb6gZVz/view?usp=sharing

 

[Adam Vreeke]

Illustrator is still the same version. I created the file. Saved it as pdf from the get go.

here is the file:https://drive.google.com/file/d/14OyUjk0JS837wIgPNkRHlr0NfMb6gZVz/view?usp=sharing

After looking at the file and trying to figure this out. It appears it was all created in Photoshop. If you open the PDF in PS it has all layers completely editable. This may also explain why it is importing to funky into Illustrator. Not sure what you all need to do with it, but you should be able to save it as a PS EPS file and open it up in Illustrator.

 

[CSOCSO]

After looking at the file and trying to figure this out. It appears it was all created in Photoshop. If you open the PDF in PS it has all layers completely editable. This may also explain why it is importing to funky into Illustrator. Not sure what you all need to do with it, but you should be able to save it as a PS EPS file and open it up in Illustrator.

OMG... well.. I guess that explains it. LOL. In over a decade this was the first time that I forgot where the file was created and tried to open it with the wrong software. To be honest usually I never save pdf from photoshop so I assumed if its pdf it must have been saved in ilustrator. That's why I didn't even think about opening it in photoshop. Thanks Adam