Inspiring

Question

Disappearing Symbols!

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
November 9, 2016
7 replies
8611 views

I use symbols a lot, but suddenly one day they became very glitchy.

More specifically, some symbols do not display when the file is saved as a pdf.

When the pdf is opened in some other software, the symbols disappear. Same results on different computers, too.

If the pdf still has preserved illustrator editing capabilities, the symbols display properly only when opened in Illustrator.

If the pdf does not have illustrator editing capabilites, the symbols are gone when opened in illustrator too.

if I save as an ai file with pdf support, I get the same problem when previewing the file or placing into an InDesign layout

if I tinker around, I can get some symbols to display but not all of them, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for why some display and others don't.

if i export the file as a PNG, the symbols are all displayed properly, but this doesn't work for what I need. I need to be able to edit a file that supports symbols and then drop it into an InDesign layout.

This is a problem with only my computer. This happens on almost every file I work with. I'm using a mac. I've tried opening a problematic file with an older PC running a slightly older version of AI CC, and there was no problem saving it properly. I've tried this on a better mac and there was no problem. I've tried deleting all my preference files, but the problem remains. I updated from AI CC 2015 to AI CC 2017 and the problem remains.

I've tried using Illustrator EPS files...the result is ok but I often get glitches with spot colors and the alignment point of symbols gets reset every time the file is saved/closed/opened. I'm also working on a team, so if I can't get AI or PDF files to work with my computer, it means that all of our shared files would need to be changed to EPSs to accommodate my glitchy computer. That sucks.

solk59486796

Participant

8 years on, still not resolved. But now, pay monthly.

fredericb50042062

Participant

2024 and still the same issue. My symbol re-appear when I click to ''open'' the symbol.
But invisible when you open the file.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @fredericb50042062,

We understand how frustrating technical issues can be. Could you please provide more details, such as the exact version of your OS/Illustrator, a public link to the file you're having trouble with, the folder location where the file is saved, and a screen recording of the issue (if possible) (https://adobe.ly/3VoUc4O)? This information will help us investigate further.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Anubhav

B

Bloglogic

Participant

It's 2023 now and I just experienced the same thing. In my particular case the symbol dissapeared when I scaled it down. Changing a stroke width solved the issue for me.

So, it could be caused by scale issues. Remember that weird message "The requested transformation would make some objects too small"? I believe that's what's happening here. Symbols are often made, rescaled and might even be scaled again when exporting to PDF. A thin stroke, some messed up anchor points, stray points.. They all can give pretty weird errors especially when scaling.

maumaga

Participant

I was having the same problem but then I've found the solution!

Select the symbol that is not showing on the PDF from the Symbols library pallette
Click the top right menu of the Symbols pallette (three lines)
Choose Symbol Options...
On Symbol Type select Dynamic Symbol

All done! Now save as PDF and celebrate! Haha

B

brianh83958198

Participant

Its March 2018 and it doesn't look like this has been fixed. I have been working on a big packaging project and when I tried to make a PDF for customer approval...ALL symbols had vanished. There is not much point in having symbols if they are going to be so erratic.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

It would be a good idea to mention this problem here:

Adobe Illustrator Feedback

M

Mann Print

Participant

I have the exact same problem :(

Monika Gause

Community Expert

We're talking about symbols in the symbols panel? Or about CC library objects?

Are they vector or pixel?

Anything special about them? Used a plugin to create them? Something else?

Which symbol options?

With which options exactly are you saving the PDF?

With which apps exactly do you open the PDF?

WHen you access the PDF part of the file, everything actually should be embedded. When you open the AI part of the file, it depends.

Please watch this about Illustrator files and PDF Mysterious things Illustrator does - Saving files on Vimeo

S

SievAuthor

Inspiring

They are symbols in the symbols panel

They are simple vector art with a few nested symbols. no effects whatsoever.

symbol options:

Graphic / Movie Clip makes no difference.

Static / Dynamic makes no difference. But I am using static only.

The symbols will appear in the pdf if I have 9-scale slicing enabled, but then the symbols become distorted when they are resized.

I am saving the pdf/ai files with default settings. I also save with the smallest file size preset and the problem persists.

I've opened the problematic pdfs in preview, acrobat, wps office, and web browsers, all with the same result.

After watching the mysterious video you linked, I would say that the pdf portion of my ai files isn't embedding the symbols. The same is true for the main pdf portion of pdf files, but the ai portion of the pdf file is intact.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Please upload one of these files to Dropbox or the like and post a link here.

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