FAO: Illustrator Expert -- Need help with a user's question

[Nancy OShea]

We have a Stock Contributor with a question about vector graphics.  Although I'm familiar with Illustrator, I'm not sure what he's asking.  Do any of you know what he means?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock-contributors-discussions/expanding-your-shapes-and-providing-ed...

Thanks for taking time to read this.

🙂

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

I believe he wants his Illustrator file as editable as possible by saving a live version of the file outside the artboard (and the dumbed down almost uneditable version on the artboard). But that conflicts with one of the Do's: 

Do: Make sure all your artwork is on one artboard and delete anything outside the artboard boundaries.  

He is mentioning Expanding the lines, which is, as well as outlining text and expanding patterns one of the recommendations/requirements:

In https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/vector-requirements.html

It says: Follow these technical guidelines and best practices:

Outline all strokes as paths or shapes.

Text should be minimized, but outlined when included. 

Both recommendations will make it very difficult to edit the file.

There are very frequent questions on the Illustrator forum about stock files and outlined text; how do I convert outlined text back to live editable text? How can I convert an outlined stroke back to an editable stroke?

In https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/how-to/submit-sell-vector-art.html

3 Organize your file says: Make sure that: all patterns fills are expanded (some previous versions of Adobe Illustrator don't allow a user to edit them if they are not expanded); (3C)

Which is total nonsense, even in Illustrator 88 (when patterns were introduced) you could paste a saved pattern to edit it. Expanding patterns will blow up the file size and limit the ability to edit the file.

Why not let contributors deliver a live AI file? Editing needs a subscription anyway (and you could add a warning for those who are still using outdated versions and systems).

[Nancy OShea]

Thanks for your insights, @Ton Frederiks.

When I buy vector art, I always look for editable AI files.  EPS is of no use to me anymore.

[Monika Gause]

The "Adobe Illustrator 10 EPS" that is usually demanded by stock companies does even contain an AI file. But due to these other recommendations (and due to the version 10 requirement), it's useless for maximum editability.