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Participating Frequently
May 11, 2017
Question

PDF stroke size change when Opened in Illustrator

  • May 11, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 6270 views

I have PDF artwork that I need to send to a 3rd party supplier to create a Stamp for me and his system only works with EPS files

When I save the pdf as an EPS and open it in illustrator the stroke thickness changes from 1.4mm to 1.7mm.

When I open the original PDF into illustrator the stroke thickness changes from 1.4mm to 1.2mm

When I place the PDF into illustrator and then Flatten the placed file the stroke change to 1.2mm with Enhance Keylines of and 1.7mm with enhance Keylines turned ON.

Is there a way to make sure the Stroke thickness in the PDF will stay the same when Opened into Illustrator as there are No Options in Acrobat to covert a stroke to outlines and I can't keep going back to my client to get them to make all the Stokes outline in their original artwork before sending me a PDF.

Tony Collins

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    2 replies

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 15, 2017

    Use in Acrobat Pro > Print Production > Preflight those profiles which will outline fonts and strokes and then you can open it in Illustrator without causing any change in form. (But you loose text editing functionality to text as it is now vector art.)

    Participating Frequently
    May 15, 2017

    Hi Willi

    I used a Preflight profile that Flattens and Converts Outlines to Strokes and applied the fix but it does not Outline the Lines, they still remain as they were.

    Thanks anyway.

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 11, 2017

    In which app has the PDF been created?

    You could try the following:

    Create a new file in Illustrator.

    Place (link, not embed) the PDF.

    Select it and then Object > Flatten transparency. Check the option "Outline strokes"

    Participating Frequently
    May 11, 2017

    Hi Monika

    file is created from a Proprietery application from my client, I have tried placing the file as a Link and Flattening Transparency with Outline Strokes Checked and it thickens the stroke from 1.4mm in Acrobat to 1.7mm in illustrator.

    I am at a loss as to why 2 Adobe application cannot interpolate a file the same, a stroke width should not change when opening into a different application from the same supplier.

    I have saved the PDF as an EPS and still the stroke widths change.

    Any more suggestions that i could try would be helpful.

    Thanks

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 11, 2017

    How did you measure stroke width in both apps?

    Acrobat has some screen redraw enhancements which might further confuse stuff.