Linked artwork in Adobe Illustrator 28.1 (Windows) saved as PDF are miisng in PDF files

[b squires]

When I create a drawing using Illustrator 28.1 (Windows) and place linked files in the Illustrator document and then save as PDF, the linked art is missing in the PDF file. I opened a PDF created a few months ago using the same process in Illustrator 27 with linked art files and the linked files were included in the PDF. This is a problem specific to Illustrator 28. My work around is to embed the linked files and then save as PDF. When I open the PDF using this workaround, the art from the embedded files is in place. What happened to the ability to create a PDF using Illustrator 28 with linked files. Is this feature no longer supported?

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you try the usual things like restart your computer, reset the preferences?

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Hasn't changed; Works properly here (28.1 Mac and Win10).

[b squires]

Hello Brad: Thanks for your help. I've attached the PDF that I'm linking in Illustrator, that's causing the problem - (I have 200 different files just like this one to link). When I place this attached file into Illustrator (linked) and save as PDF, and open the file in Acrobat, the linked image is missing. I tried the same file (as attached) linked in InDesign and exported as PDF and the image shows up just fine when I open in Acrobat - so the issue seems to be Illustrator related. Note that I've placed other linked PDFs (not related to this job) into Illustrator and saved as PDF and they were in the file when opened with Acrobat. Could you try placing the PDF attached into an Illustrator file and saving as PDF. I'd be interested in your results.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

Yup. Did the same for me. (doesn't matter what versionof Illustrator so this is not a 28.1 problem).

Your QR code was made form Inkscape and I suspect something has changed there , since you said they worked before).... In any case, your QR code PDF has a corrupt Media box associated with it which, instead of a normal clipping path box around the whole QR code, becomes just a single line at the bottom, so anything outside of it is cropped off. (You can see this if you open one of the final PDFs you make in Illustrator and go to Outline Mode. You will see a single line below the code. Delete that line, and the code magically reappears).

Solution:  open your QR codes in Illustrator and resave them either as .AI or .PDF. This corrects the bad Crop box and they work fine.

[b squires]

Hello Brad: Again, many thanks for you interest in this problem. I suspected that the supplied PDFs created from Inkscape might be corrupted in some way. Other PDFs linked in a test Illustrator file and saved to PDF had the linked images in place. Interestingly, when I tested the Inkscape PDFs linked in an InDesign file and exported to PDF - using the same PDF settings as Illustrator, there were no problems with the art showing up in the resulting PDF. I'm not sure why the linked file works in InDesign and not in Illustrator (must be an Illustrator specific issue). My Illustrator work around was to simply embed the files and then save as PDF. I didn't have time to edit 200 different files - so it was fortunate that simply embeding the linked files solved the problem. All is well - thanks again!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

In further reading, I found there was a bug with some older versions of Inkscape (your QR code was done in v1.0.1) about bad clip paths that have a "zero" dimension, so I'm guessing this might be part of it. That being said, I made a sample graphic in the current version I have (1.3.1) and it does exactly the same thing.  Saving them as SVG worked fine, and might be your answer going forward if you make new codes.

Embedding works becuse it reconforms the graphic into Illustrator objects and drops the errant clipping path.

Cheers!