Unable to view Background colour in file when opening in Illustrator

[bev_BandW]

When I am opening up my clients file in Illustrator which is a two page document, I request to open the second page only and I can see the thumbnail view of the artwork including the background colour.  However, when it opens in Illustrator the background colour "disappears".  I end up with a white background.  Why is that please?

[Monika Gause]

There is no background color in Illustrator files.

If you need some color in a background, draw a rectangle and color its fill.

Is there a rectangle in that file? If so and it is still invisible, then we have an actual problem.

[bev_BandW]

There is a background colour as when we view the file as a PDF sent over from the client there is a background colour and in the thumbnail view when opening the file in Illustrator you can see the background colour but when  the file opens there is no background colour.  It just has completely disappeared and the background is now white?

[Monika Gause]

In Acrobat you can add backgrounds as watermarks and those might not carry over to Illustrator. Basically when importing a PDF into Illustrator you get what you get. Illustrator is not a general purpose PDF editor. And PDF was never meant for editing.

[Met1]

If what Monika says is your set up, you could try saving the pdf in Acrobat to an eps, and open that in Illy, but you'll probably lose live text editing but get your graphics, so you'll need to then open the pdf to get your live text...

[bev_BandW]

I have in the past been able to modify my clients artwork in Illustrator from their PDF's - its only just recently that this problem has occured?

[Monika Gause]

There might have been a change in how these files are created.

In any case: Please read this explanation: https://prepression.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-ten-commandments-of-pdf.html This has been written by the industry experts on PDF. Some of whom have created the file format.

[Met1]

Illustrator is NOT a pdf editor.

You ability to edit pdfs with Illy will depend on how they were created and how they were saved.

[Mike_Gondek]

What file format is this 2-page document? The.ai it does not allow you to choose specific pages to open. So am suspecting it is a pdf, which is a source of many posts on this forum as pdf are not meant to be edited. If that is all you will ever get, then you will need to Frankenstein this file, open both pages, and mask the background maybe. The client should be sending you a .ai file to open, not a pdf where all the items get scrambled, compressed, or even bitmapped.

Can you please all of the 2 pages file in illustrator, select all, and send us a screenshot. Maybe your background spans 2 pages, and the origin is set to page 1. I am also curious about the construction in Illustrator, and why you say is uneditable. Everything is editable, but you might have a bitmapped graphic for part of the construction.

[Met1]

Is it there if you open both pages?

I hardly ever use InDesign, but I think you can have a spread of two pages and the "background" going across both is actually only "grounded" to the first page - I might be wrong and I can't be bothered to open ID to test it.

Open both pages and see what you get...

[bev_BandW]

If I open up both pages then yes the second page which is the artwork page there is the colour there - but it is not an editable file so I am unable to modify it which is what I wish to do.

[Monika Gause]

If I open up both pages then yes the second page which is the artwork page there is the colour there - but it is not an editable file so I am unable to modify it which is what I wish to do.

By @bev_BandW

As I said: you get what you get.

Probably the background has been a picture from the beginning. Then you can't edit it in Illustrator. Use Photoshop or create this with Illustrator tools.

[Met1]

Try my eps suggestion...

[bev_BandW · Accepted solution]

Thank you - the EPS option worked.  Thanks for your help.