Why does PDF show layers in Acrobat but not in Illustrator?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
November 14, 2024
3 replies
665 views

Greetings,

Why does my exported PDF show Illustrator created layers when a coworker views it in Acrobat on a Mac, but when they open the PDF in Illustrator, the layers are gone? I'm on windows and I see the layers when opening the PDF both in Acrobat and Illustrator. Thanks for the help.

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Correct answer Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Depends on how you save the PDF. Since you are able to open your PDF and still see the layers, it sounds like you've saved the file with Illustrator Editing enabled. That's good. However, there is also a versioning issue to be considered. If you saved the file as a PDF with Illustrator Editing enabled in a newer version than your coworkers, they might get a warning the file was made in a newer version and it will open essentailly from the PDF side, and you will lose the layers (and other native Illustrator structuring)

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Correct answer

Community Expert

Depends on how you save the PDF. Since you are able to open your PDF and still see the layers, it sounds like you've saved the file with Illustrator Editing enabled. That's good. However, there is also a versioning issue to be considered. If you saved the file as a PDF with Illustrator Editing enabled in a newer version than your coworkers, they might get a warning the file was made in a newer version and it will open essentailly from the PDF side, and you will lose the layers (and other native Illustrator structuring)

TestriteVisualAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the help. Yes it seems to be a Version issue. My MacOS coworker who is on Illustrator 29.0.1 like me on Windows, DOES see the layers, but my MacOS coworker on Illustrator 28.5 does not. I believe the mystery is solved.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

You should be just sharing the working .AI file with your coworkers if they need to work with it. .AI files have less of a versioning issue, and newer files can be opened by older versions... up to a point, i.e. if a newer file has a used feature that is not in the older version then there will be issues.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Acrobat layers are not the same as Illustrator layers. So when opening the PDF Illustrator would need to translate the layers into its own hierarchy, which it doeesn't do.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

For clarification you may want to share a sample .pdf file.

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