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Mossy60
Inspiring
June 2, 2023
Answered

Distorted artwork in illustrator

  • June 2, 2023
  • 20 replies
  • 4827 views

Recently, any vectored file that I import into Illustrator paste in much larger than its original size. Additionally, the holding lines are much thicker. This is only a recent problem for me, as in the past, imported vector images always pasted seamlessly with their holding lines being the same weight.

 

Have I perhaps pushed a wrong button somewhere to start all of this? Thanks.

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Correct answer Mossy60

Thanks everyone. I will experiment and try everyone's advice, and see where it gets me. When all is said and done, I will let you know if I have been able to get things back to "normal" as it were.


Addressing the collective. The moving a PDF over to ilIlustrator solves by overall problem. I will continue to try to understand why the enlargement thing happened to begin with, but if  I encounter that again, I can simply bring a PDF over and work from there. It's an extra step, but solves my overall issue.

 

There was the mention of perhaps having issues related to fonts. There are letters in several of my images, but no fonts. Each letter is an individual vectored piece. This is a trick I learned in order to make sure that pieces of artwork are more historically precise as I redraw them. I am able to place individual letters exactly where they need to be, as opposed to settling for wherever a vector drawing platform places them via there font parameters.

 

Thanks to everyone who chimed in. This is my first experience with any type of online support group. You guys are awesome!

 

Clay

20 replies

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 3, 2023

Mossy,

 

Can you state the original size as well as the pasted size?

 

What happens if you set the W value (in the Transform panel) of the pasted artwork to be the same as the original width and then Ctrl/Cmd+Enter (hold Ctrl/Cmd and press Enter)?

 

My first thought was that it could be something with the difference between the default/often used resolution of 300PPI, maybe as a setting in Powerpoint (which I have never had). That could make the pasted size 4.1667 times larger than the original, so you could just scale the pasted artwork to 24% (or multiply the W value by 0.24 (just add *0.24 to the current value) and Ctrl/Cmd+Enter.

 

M
Mossy60Author
Inspiring
June 5, 2023
Thanks. The last piece of artwork I attempted to insert into illustrator was a piece of artwork 33.77 inches tall, by 54.85 inches wide. I was inserting it into a 3 x 5‘ illustrator palette. When I pasted it, it ended up being 50 inches tall roughly, by 85 inches roughly. I was able to shrink it down to its original 33.77 x 54.85, but once again, all of the holding lines were too thick. I’m not sure what kind of formula it would take on power port side to get it right.
 
My point from the beginning has been this. Up until recently, anything I brought from PowerPoint over to illustrator pasted in the exact same size I drew it to begin with. So, I am not certain what I did to change things. I have an ancient version of PowerPoint, and a not so new version of illustrator, both contained completely within my computer. So, no updates came my way that should have altered anything.
Larry G. Schneider
Community Expert
Larry G. SchneiderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 5, 2023

How did you scale the file to the size you wanted? At the bottom of the Scale dialog is a checkbox which says Scale Strokes and Effects. Is the box checked? If it is, then try it with the box unchecked.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2023

From where do you get the files that you open in Illustrator?

How do you import them?

M
Mossy60Author
Inspiring
June 3, 2023

Indraw of my illustrations, believe it or not, in PowerPoint. From there, I simply highlight, and copy, or cut, and then paste into illustrator. Forever, it worked just fine. Suddenly, everything is pasting into illustrator much larger than original, and if I'm using holding lines in any particular piece of artwork, those holding lines get much thicker, which was not the case previously. Thanks.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 3, 2023

I would be happy that it works at all.

There might have been changes in how either Powerpoint or Illustrator handles the clipboard. So there's probably not a lot anyone can do to help you. 

 

You might take a video of this and provide the files and post a feature request on Uservoice. The developers can then check out whether they can solve it on their end.

https://illustrator.uservoice.com 

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