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Is there a way to save artboards to PDFs with layers intact and pasteboard content removed?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
March 3, 2023
5 replies
1930 views

I know how to save artboards to PDFs and remove pasteboard (off-artboard) conent. I'd save a PDF 1.6 with Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities unchecked. But this gets rid of my layers when reopening the PDF file in Illustrator.

I also know how to save artboards to PDFs and retain the layers. I'd save as a PDF 1.6 with Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities checked. But this file includes all of the pasteboard content when reopening the file in Illustrator.

How do I save artboards to PDFs with layers intact and pasteboard / off-artboard content removed?

Context: When I work on creating print files for projects, I like to keep one project based Illustrator file with all of the assets we'll be ordering. I then export these artboards as PDFs to send to various suppliers. I want suppliers to only see the artboard content that's applicable to them, and all of the layers for "Cut Lines" "Notes" "Artwork" etc. to be kept intact.

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Correct answer Ton Frederiks

You could try to do it in 2 steps. Save As .ai, with the option to "Save each artboard to a seperate file" checked. And save the resulting files (or rename the resulting files) as .pdf.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

I can still imagine some ways without having to first save to separate files and then probably combining them again (in case we are talking about multiple artboard files at all).

That's why I suggested to share some sample files to look at.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Ton, are you sure you understand the initial request? I assume you do, but I'm not quite sure.

Or I'm not sure if I understand it according to your 2-step-solution that does not do what Liam is looking for, at least as far as I can see.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

I hope I do understand it.

There is a file with multiple artboards, each artboard has one or more layers and outside the artboards there are objects.

Saving the file as .ai with the "each artboard as a separate .ai file" option keeps the layers in each file and gets rid of the content outside the artboards.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Examples:

Ton Frederiks

Correct answer

Community Expert

You could try to do it in 2 steps. Save As .ai, with the option to "Save each artboard to a seperate file" checked. And save the resulting files (or rename the resulting files) as .pdf.

L

Liam1996Author

Participant

I really like this solution. The option to "Save each artboard to a separate file" combined with the option to "Create PDF Compatible File" works perfectly. It appears that the second step of renaming the files to .pdf isn't even necessary, as long as I tell the vendors that the .ai file is also PDF compatible.

Also, I didn't even know you could just rename the file extension like that. Using a tool like PowerRename, it's barely an extra step to change it to .pdf.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Good to hear that worked for you. I don't know PowerRename, but Adobe Bridge has also renaming capabilities of entire folders.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

This task can possibly be automated with an action, but at least a couple of sample Illustrator files for inspection would be required in order to see if there are appropriate ways.

So, perhaps you can share some files?

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

Hi @Liam1996 the two asks are conflciting - you can't preserve layers for editing without Illustrator Editing Capabilities on, but that also preserves the artboards and pasteboard.

This might be better as an idea to vote up as a future enhancement:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests

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