Illustrator File Corruption When Saving as CS6 Version – Illegal Operand Error

Subject: Bug Report: Illustrator File Corruption When Saving as CS6 Version – Illegal Operand Error

Dear Adobe Support Team,

I am writing to report a potential bug in Adobe Illustrator (version 30.2.1) when saving files in legacy CS6 format for compatibility with older versions.

Software Version:
Adobe Illustrator v30.2.1 (latest version as of this report)

Issue Description:
When saving an Illustrator document in CS6 format using the latest version of Illustrator (v30.2.1), the file cannot be opened in older versions of Illustrator (specifically CS6). The recipient (a printing service provider using a lower version) receives the following error message upon opening the file:

"⚠️ Unable to open the illustration. The illustration contains an illegal operand. Offending operator: <c7c7> Context: A2A2A2A1A1A1A0A0A09F9F9F9F9E9E9E9D9D9C9C9C9B9B9B9A9A9A99999 9989899797979796 969695 >"

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create or open any document in Adobe Illustrator v30.2.1.

2. Go to File > Save As and select "Adobe Illustrator CS6" as the format.

3. Save the file.

4. Attempt to open the saved file in Adobe Illustrator CS6 (or earlier versions).

Expected Behavior:
The file should open normally in older versions of Illustrator (CS6) without errors, as the "Save as CS6" function is intended to maintain backward compatibility.

Actual Behavior:
The file fails to open, citing an illegal operand error. This makes the file unusable for users or vendors relying on older versions of the software.

Additional Context:
The issue appears to be related to how certain objects, effects, or color data are being translated during the legacy save process. The hexadecimal data shown in the error may indicate corruption during the save operation.

I would appreciate it if your engineering team could investigate this compatibility issue and provide a fix in a future update. Please let me know if you require the original file or any further information to assist with troubleshooting.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best regards,
[Ran Donghai]
[randonghai@gmail.com]