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Question

Why is Acrobat Pro DC not allowing import of .ai files into image fields?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
October 30, 2019
3 replies
8197 views

I'm a graphic designer and I have been using the same .pdf form that I created myself in Acrobat Pro DC for over a year to create print proofs for customers. There has been an image field that allows for me to upload .ai files into the form. I have always had the option to upload .ai, or .eps files into the image field but this moring, that is no longer an option. I have not changed the settings or edited my form in anyway. I'm runing the lastest version of Acrobat Pro DC and the files I'm uploading are made form the lastest version of Illustrator. This is all done on a iMac and the problem started after I ran a software update to Mac Catlina 10.15.1 this morning.

My questions are

1) Why are .ai or .esp files not longer allowed for upload into an image field?

2) Is this just a setting that I can change?

2) What is the least stupid workaround because as of now, I have to create an extra step in my work flow of creating a .jpg of every .ai file to be uploaded into the image field.

PDF forms

This topic has been closed for replies.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Please see these two threads from Apple support forums.

At this time they seem to offer the most reasonable explanation to your issue in relation to the recent update to Catalina:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250185128

And here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/429043

A

Antonio10998966Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you, I read through the links. I did change some of the get info settings but have not resolved the issue yet. I did try with my .pdf forms and .ai template files on my laptop, which is still running an older Mac OS, with no luck, .ai files are now greyed out for import.

-N

ls_rbls

Community Expert

So I also went ahead and did a better research,

These are some additional tips:

Appending .pdf at the end of the .ai file, like for example, myimage.ai.pdf
According to the link provided below, as long as the .ai file is saved in Illustrator with some PDF compatibility layer you will be able to preview and edit normally. There are also two work arounds offered in the link below in Adobe Acrobat; but again, the preferred method is to convert your work to PDF directly from illustrator https://answers.acrobatusers.com/EPS-AI-images-q147932.aspx
Since you are already in the process of adding an extra step in your workflow, and since the link above indicates that there is no support in Adobe Acrobat Pro to convert these .ai files to PDF, it brings me to suggest if you have have tried using the batch convert built-in feature in Adobe Illustrator. The next following links shows how to https://www.planetquark.com/2012/05/24/batch-convert-illustrator-to-pdf/ and here https://community.adobe.com/t5/Illustrator/Batch-saving-large-of-ai-files-to-PDF/td-p/8767912
Abonus link here with other suggestions and alternate approaches: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/open-ai-files-without-illustrator/

Dov Isaacs

Legend

Interesting!

As far as I know, the Acrobat Edit Text & Images tool set's Add Image tool only allows adding of raster images as found in fully raster image files formats (i.e., .tif, .jpg, .png, etc.) and not any other formats.

You can create new layers using existing PDF files. You can create custom rubber stamps from existing PDF files as well as Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files. In the latter case, the .eps is internally converted to PDF via distillation of PostScript to PDF. There is absolutely no direct support for placing any Illustrator artwork unless the Illustrator .ai file was created with PDF content in it.

There was no change in this support anytime in recent memory.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

A

Antonio10998966Author

Participating Frequently

Hello Dov,

Thank you for your help. let me explaine the issue in greater detail. I'm a graphic designer and I've been using Adobe products since the early 2000's. I needed a way to send art proofs to clients so I created an art proof document with fields to add client name, product specfications, etc, in Illustrator, then used Abrobat Pro DC to make it into a form to be reused over and over. I've been using my form for over a year, 15-20 times a day, and up until I updated to Mac Catalina yesterday, my form had always allowed me to select an .ai file to be added to this image field. (I have never had to run files through Distiller first.)

The issue is not adding an image directly into the .pdf, it is that I have been able to select .ai files for upload into a image field in my form before, and after updating my OS to MacCatalina yeaterday, that is no longer an option. I had already updated Acrobat Pro DC last week and was able to add .ai files afterwards, All the other Creative Suite products are current as well and I have been using the same .ai template file to create the art proofs so that has not changed either.

I can only conclude that the update to Catalina is somehow blocking the upload of this file type. I had a similar issue after I upgraded to MacMavricks but after a few weeks, I was able to upload .ai files again.

It's a frustrating issue because now I have to add an additional step in my work flow of making a raster image of an .ai file to put into this form and any light that can be shed on this issue would be appriciated.

-Norah

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Hello again Norah,

I hope you found a solution to your issue.

Just yesterday another user posted a similar issue with image files when using the Combine Files tools to merge .PNG images into a single PDF file.

Everytime the user tries to combine a set of .PNG image files the merging is unsuccessful.

I included a link in this discussion that covers how to modify presets, and there is another link with a solved thread in which a user oddly worked around his issue by assigning shorter filenames for the image files.

I just thought to add value to this discussion by sharing this link here for you.

Even though the topic applies to getting rid of an error it does revolves around with problems with image files after an MacOS update, like in your case.

Here is the link:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/Acrobat/No-pdf-file-was-created-because-Adobe-Acrobat-encountered-an/m-p/10708401#M227129

ls_rbls

Community Expert

When you say that your Acrobat is updated to the latest, does that implies that you've successfully applied all three latest updates that were published for thhis month since October 15th?

A

Antonio10998966Author

Participating Frequently

I have the full Creative Suite, according to my creative cloud desktop app, that program does not have any updates, so I assume that it was done automatically.

-Norah

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Hi Norah,

So just to be sure, with your Adobe Acrobat opened, when you click on help, then About Acrobat, it will display which current version is updated to.

The latest update should be .20049

It is this particular update published on 25th October that has fixes for Catalina

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