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nickc74518618
Participant
August 27, 2018
Answered

SVG I just created in Illustrator will not re-open in Illustrator

  • August 27, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 544 views

A couple months ago I had create a bunch of logo lockups for a company with the TM and exported SVG files of each variation. I now need to change the TM to a R but Illustrator does not recognize the files that I just recently created. When I try to open the SVGs, it wants me to select a file format yet doesn't give me the SVG option. It gives me these options: Pixar, PCX, BMP, PNG or Targa. Yet no matter which I pick, it gives me an error. I can see a preview of it and I can drag it to a browser to view but Illustrator can't handle it.

WHY?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Monika Gause

    nickc74518618  schrieb


    But apparently Illustrator is incapable of handling this. Good to know.

    Yes, unfortunately it's known that Illustrator has issues with SVGs. Even if it created them.

    Try and open your SVGs in Inkscape and then export them to PDF.

    1 reply

    John Mensinger
    Community Expert
    John MensingerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2018

    WHY?

    I don't know; it sounds like Illustrator now reads them as raster images. Could be due to an option you chose during export.

    SVG is not a simple vector format, and as you see, it can be problematic for source file storage. The right way to do this is to always save your base variants (of anything you might need to edit again), in Illustrator's native format, and regard any other saved or exported formats as expendable, specialized copies.

    N
    nickc74518618Author
    Participant
    August 27, 2018

    Ok. I know the right way to do it but sometimes when speed is more important due to deadlines (and our asset management system where the source AI files are kept is a slow clunky POS), I thought it would be super fast to open the SVG that is currently being used for our web apps and edit it that way since its a vector based image. Would never do this with jpgs or even pngs since the quality can degrade every time they are exported.
    But apparently Illustrator is incapable of handling this. Good to know.

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 27, 2018

    nickc74518618  schrieb


    But apparently Illustrator is incapable of handling this. Good to know.

    Yes, unfortunately it's known that Illustrator has issues with SVGs. Even if it created them.

    Try and open your SVGs in Inkscape and then export them to PDF.

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