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Cannot export as JPG from older Illustrator file

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 16, 2024
3 replies
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I recently upgraded from Illustrator CS5.5 to the latest version of Illustrator (28.7). On PC, if I try to export an artboard to JPG from a file that I created in Illustrator CS5.5, the program freezes and only produces an empty, corrupted JPG file (0 KB). This function worked just fine in CS5.5 and it works for new files in Illustrator 28. Additionally, if I save the older back-compatible file in the latest file compatibility format, this still occurs. The only way I can make this work is by copying the content of the artboard to a brand new Illustrator file and exporting from there. Any idea why this is happening and how I can fix it? I have tested this on two different PCs with the exact same result. Thanks!

Import and export

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Correct answer Justin38875083h6ip

Thanks, based on other replies, I have figured out the issue. Simply, GraphPad Prism files can no longer be simply copied and pasted into new versions of Illustrator, in contrast to the old versions of Illustrator. Rather, I have to export Prism files in EMF format and then import them into Illustrator. This avoids the Illustrator crash problem and also results in better fidelity in terms of vector appearance.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Justin,

Can you still (access and) export from your CS5.5?

I believe it may be worth keeping your CS5.5 for that specific purpose; others have kept it for the earlier version of Image Trace.

J

Justin38875083h6ipAuthor

Participant

Thanks! I still have CS5.5 on an old computer and certainly will keep using it while it works, but it cannot be installed on any new computers (the installer doesn't seem compatible with new versions of Windows, and on the newest MacOS, the software doesn't work at all), so that's why I was hoping to completely transition to the latest CC version.

It turns out that a graph copied from a scientific software called GraphPad Prism was the culprit. The behavior of different versions of Prism going into different versions of Illustrator is very erratic, with Prism's help specifically saying that they struggle to keep up with changes that Adobe makes to Illustrator. The older version of both softwares were super compatible with each other, but recently there have been a lot of issues with fonts getting weird. However, this is the first time it has completely crashed Illustrator, so I'll just need to be mindful of how I interface them in the future. It seems that exporting Prism files to PDF, EMF, or SVG instead of copy+paste is able to avoid this issue.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

You are welcome, Justin, and thank you for sharing.

I can see from your answer to Anubhav that your new roundabout way over EMF is even an improvement.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Justin38875083h6ip,

I am sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind sharing a public link to a sample AI and JPG file after uploading it to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc., as well as screenshots of the problem so we can investigate this further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

J

Justin38875083h6ipAuthorCorrect answer

Participant

Thanks, based on other replies, I have figured out the issue. Simply, GraphPad Prism files can no longer be simply copied and pasted into new versions of Illustrator, in contrast to the old versions of Illustrator. Rather, I have to export Prism files in EMF format and then import them into Illustrator. This avoids the Illustrator crash problem and also results in better fidelity in terms of vector appearance.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Does this happen with all your files or just that one?

Files can go corrupt.

J

Justin38875083h6ipAuthor

Participant

I went and tested a bunch of my files. It is a lot of files, but not all of them. Specifically, this affects several files relating to my scientific data, and I am realizing it may have nothing to do with how old the file is. My files that have artwork that I drew completely in Illustrator are just fine, from any version of Illustrator. To be more specific, the scientific data layouts are compilations of graphs, images, and schematics for posters and manuscript figures, and they have been imported chiefly from GraphPad Prism or are embedded images.

Right now, I think that there is one particular object or type of object that is contained in the data layout file that causes the program to crash. If I copy all contents of the file to a new file, the new file will also crash. So, I copied out progressively smaller and smaller chunks of the file to try to isolate what causes the crash. It seems to be one particular bar graph, made in the latest version of GraphPad Prism - it "contaminates" the whole file, so that I cannot export artboards even if they don't include this graph. Once I delete this graph, the exporting works. I can't do further testing right now, but thanks for your help in guiding me down the right path here.

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