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

[Antonio10998966]

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.

[ls_rbls]

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?

[Antonio10998966]

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]

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

[Antonio10998966]

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

It looks that after the upgrade to Catalina a few compatibility settings need to be modified by the user.

One of the possible comoatibility issues woth the newly upgraded OS is to set the file permissions as shown in this guide:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/compatibility-with-macos-10-15-catalina.html 

The other area of interest would be to set the appropriate file association to the corresponding application.

In this particular case, that means, that you may go to the directory where you have all of your .ai and .eps files and associate Adobe Acrobat as the default viewer. By doing so you should be able to preview the files in your PDF documents like you used to.

[Antonio10998966]

Thank you for the reponse, This issue is not on the list that the link provided. I am not receiveing any kind of error message. Acrobat simply dose not recongize .ai or .eps file as acceptable files to uploaded into a image field whereas prior to the Mac Catalina install, it had.

Sadly, changing Acrobat Pro DC to be a default viewer app for .ai and .esp files, is not an option as I need Illustrator to be the default for this file types. 

[ls_rbls]

Yes I included that link thinking it be relevant to check if anything might also be related to assigning folder permissions.

I will continue to keep an eye on this and post back if I find anything relevant to your issue

[Dov Isaacs]

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

[Antonio10998966]

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]

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/... 

[Antonio10998966]

Thank you for the info. I have not been able to import .ai files but have mananged to get improt for .eps files again. For now, I'll just start making .jpg of every finished art proof, a tedious step but works.

-N

[ls_rbls]

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 

[Antonio10998966]

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]

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/ 

[ls_rbls]

Hi N,

Just wondering if you were able to figure something out or resolve your .ai files issue

[Antonio10998966]

Hello ls_rbls,

Well, I found a decent enough workaround. I was having to make a .jpg of each .ai file before loading into the art proof .pdf form but that was tedious (I make about 20-30 art files a day). So following a suggestion you made above,  I tried just adding a second extension after the art is done, so now the files are labeled <filename>.ai.pdf and can be load those into my form.  Of course, when the art is approved, I have to rename the file back to .ai to process for press so it's still a bit of an awkward fix. 

The fact that I can "trick" Acrobat into loading a misnamed vector file into the form field tells me that there is actually no real coding reason for the inability to load .ai file directly, but rather Catalina or Acrobat's code is intentionally blocking this specific file type.  Seems dumb to inhibit work flow like that and maybe it will be addressed by he developers and fixed in future versions.  Thank you for your follow up and fix suggestions.

-Norah

[ls_rbls]

I have seen a lot of similar issues like yours since last week. Something is definitely going on.

If you would like, here is a direct link to share your feedback on this issue with Adobe: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac 

And here for a bug report  / feature request: https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html 

[ls_rbls]

Hello again,

Just found this :https://community.adobe.com/t5/Illustrator/Illustrator-2020-not-saving-files-in-ai-format/td-p/10713...

I believe this could  be of interest to you.

An Illustrator user found another work around approach to similar issue;  it seems that your issue could also be related to the last update that was published in November 4.

[Antonio10998966]

Thank you ls_rbls for your continued intrest in solving this issue,

I didreset my preferences and made a few other tweeks but still cannot get Acrobat Pro to import ai files directly, like it did before. As a workaround, I've just been tricking abrobat by adding a second extension <filename.ai.pdf> to the files. Its a stupid trick, but it's working.

-Norah

[ls_rbls]

Got it.

Just today a new Acrobat update with fixes was published