embedding pdf file removes strokes

[tomasza43302275]

Hi all,

I have a problem with embedding a pdf file into ai. After placing a pdf and embedding it some of the strokes (red and blue line on the right) get cut off.

Same file before and after embedding:

Please help!

Thanks

[JonathanArias]

May i ask why you are trying to do this?  A you going to trace it on illustrator?

[tomasza43302275]

I need to edit the file, change fonts, stroke thickness etc. I can't seem to find a way to do it without embedding the file first.

[JonathanArias]

try to open the .pdf with illustrator. don't place it.  drag the .pdf to the illustrator app icon and open it that way. if its an image and not vector it will all be flat and will not be editable.

you will and might get missing font dialog and it will will you it will turn the text to outline. ..

[tomasza43302275]

I tried, but it didn't help. It still removes part of the lines..

[Kurt Gold]

Can you share a sample .pdf file?

[tomasza43302275]

Sure, here it is: https://wetransfer.com/downloads/157e7f1919a8d357f49e525c0843d38920170807151554/9a3855bbd83a7652cc29...

[Kurt Gold]

The red and the blue line obviously eceed the maximal number of anchor points that a single path may contain. Each of them contain 32000 anchor points which is kind of ridiculous.

What application did you use to create the .pdf file? Acrobat says it's an application called 'R'. Don't know that programme. Can you perhaps simplify the paths in the original application?

[tomasza43302275]

I tried to make the original file simpler, but it can't be done unfortunately.

I also tried to split the image in half, so that the red and blue lines are shorter and get enough anchor points after embedding, but ran into the whole 'cropping but not really cropping' issue...

[Kurt Gold]

Do you have a recent version of Acrobat Pro?

[Test Screen Name]

There is an important and unpopular fact: Illustrator is not a general PDF editor. Sometimes people are lucky. Not this time. Acrobat is a general PDF editing, but it's editing tools meet almost nobody's graphical needs. Redo and remake. A PDF is hardly more useful to you than a printed sheet.

[JonathanArias]

i see what you mean. things get dropped of the file for me too. too much art drops. I work with scientific data so its most important for this to be accurate.

If i was doing this. i would make a page on adobe indesign, place the graphic of the chart, crop what i don't need out. and redo what i want to remake with the new type and stroke you want. than generate a .pdf out of that. 

I think that would be the best way to do what you need to do and make sure the graphic stays accurate as far as displaying data correctly visually.

[Luke Jennings · Accepted solution]

I was able to open your PDF in Illustrator (CC 2017) without the truncated lines by first optimizing it with Acrobat. I didn't try each setting individually, to narrow down what fixed it, but the settings in the attached screen shot worked.

From Acrobat DC, go to File> Save as other> Optimized PDF

[Kurt Gold]

Using just the Convert smooth lines to curves option would be sufficient in this case. It removes thousands of redundant anchor points, so in Illustrator the maximal amount of anchor points per path will not be exceeded and therefore Illustrator does not remove parts of the strokes anymore.

Nevertheless, there are still more than 25000 points on the two lines. That should be simplified (both paths could be drawn with just a couple of anchor points).

Also, there are a lot of very thin strokes (0,08 pt, 0,09pt) which could cause trouble if the file is going to be printed. That could be detected and corrected with a standard preflight profile in Acrobat Pro.

[Frank Ramspott]

Is there a reason why Adobe Illustrator can't handle bigger paths with more than 32000 points? Seems very outdated these days. I often import geographic science data, which sometimes can exceed that limit. The worst fact is that there comes no alert that such a path was cropped. There is just a piece of the path missing. At least I would expect an error window for that. Would be highly appreciated.
Thanks for the hint of the "Convert smooth lines to curves" option in Acrobat, I will try that.
Kind regards, Frank