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Inspiring
April 4, 2023
Answered

How to change prefs to always save to Legacy? AI 27.2 (2023)

  • April 4, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 1720 views

Recently updated to AI 2023, v. 27.2 on an M1 Mac in Ventura OS 13.21.

I work with a printer who runs an elaborate script for plating Illustrator files. The script cannot be updated (very long story), and cannot handle later AI files, 2020 onward. So I have to save my files back to "CC (Legacy)", which is easily forgotten and causes issues. It wasn't a problem when I was actually using older AI, but now it's just one more thing to remember. Is there a setting somewhere, that I can set to always save Legacy, or will I always have to remember to select it manually?

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Correct answer Anubhav M

Hello @G P Shannon,

 

Thanks for reaching out. As suggested by Met1, you can set up a script to process all your Illustrator documents to be saved in the Illustrator CC Legacy format. Here's a script to get you started:

// Set the preset name
var presetName = "Adobe Illustrator CC";

// Set the source and destination folders
var sourceFolder = "C:/TOCONVERT/";
var destFolder = "C:/TOCONVERT/converted/";

// Get an array of files in the source folder
var files = Folder(sourceFolder).getFiles();

// Loop through each file in the source folder
for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {

  // Get a reference to the current file
  var file = files[i];

  // Check if the file is an Illustrator file
  if (file instanceof File && file.name.match(/\.ai$/i)) {

    // Open the file
    var doc = app.open(file);

    // Create the options object for saving the file
    var saveOpts = new IllustratorSaveOptions();

    // Set the save options
    saveOpts.compatibility = Compatibility.ILLUSTRATOR17;
    saveOpts.preset = presetName;

    // Save the file in the destination folder
    doc.saveAs(new File(destFolder + file.name), saveOpts);

    // Close the file
    doc.close();
  }
}

Note: You will need to change the "var sourceFolder" and "var destFolder" to the directories on your computer. Make sure that folders are already present else it will ask you to manually locate the files.

 

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

 

Thanks,

Anubhav

3 replies

Anubhav M
Community Manager
Anubhav MCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
April 7, 2023

Hello @G P Shannon,

 

Thanks for reaching out. As suggested by Met1, you can set up a script to process all your Illustrator documents to be saved in the Illustrator CC Legacy format. Here's a script to get you started:

// Set the preset name
var presetName = "Adobe Illustrator CC";

// Set the source and destination folders
var sourceFolder = "C:/TOCONVERT/";
var destFolder = "C:/TOCONVERT/converted/";

// Get an array of files in the source folder
var files = Folder(sourceFolder).getFiles();

// Loop through each file in the source folder
for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {

  // Get a reference to the current file
  var file = files[i];

  // Check if the file is an Illustrator file
  if (file instanceof File && file.name.match(/\.ai$/i)) {

    // Open the file
    var doc = app.open(file);

    // Create the options object for saving the file
    var saveOpts = new IllustratorSaveOptions();

    // Set the save options
    saveOpts.compatibility = Compatibility.ILLUSTRATOR17;
    saveOpts.preset = presetName;

    // Save the file in the destination folder
    doc.saveAs(new File(destFolder + file.name), saveOpts);

    // Close the file
    doc.close();
  }
}

Note: You will need to change the "var sourceFolder" and "var destFolder" to the directories on your computer. Make sure that folders are already present else it will ask you to manually locate the files.

 

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

 

Thanks,

Anubhav

Inspiring
April 10, 2023

Thanks Anubhav! I will see if I can do anything with this, as I'm not a scripting expert. Ideally, with each new file opened from an .ait template, I would call up a Save As... -type script that would prompt me for the destination file name and location (always a new folder named with the clipboard contents), then save with Compatibility.ILLUSTRATOR17 command. Many thanks for this to help get me started.

Inspiring
April 6, 2023

Is there any way to automate saving as Legacy out of Illustrator 27.2 (2023)? I need to do it to send files to my printer and currently it's a manual step that can be missed.

Met1
Legend
April 4, 2023
Inspiring
April 6, 2023

Thanks - my situation is saving from an .ait template. Save (.ai already selected as file type) > Navigate > New Folder > name folder with clipboard contents > name file with same clipboard contents > select "Illustrator CC (Legacy)" > OK.

The problem is that when it's really busy we sometimes miss the Legacy step, so automating it would be a great way to avoid that.

Met1
Legend
April 7, 2023

I still think you could script all that (not that I can help you with that, but maybe ChatGPT can?)