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meggp22
meggp22
Participant
August 13, 2017
Question

Undoing something I have rasterized by mistake

  • August 13, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 8557 views

HELP!!! I was wondering if someone could help me with undoing my mistake. To work on my images I always do the following before adding in colour to my digital drawings: Object>Expand Appearance then Object>Live Paint>Make. After doing so, I recently did the following: Object > Rasterize, meaning I now have an image I can not edit. I since closed and saved (forgetting I had made a mistake to part of my image) and therefore can not use the Undo tool to get the image back to where it was when after expanding and clocking 'Live Paint'.

After searching on previous forums I found that Object>Rasterize is destructive and cannot be undone. I now know that I should have gone to Effect>Rasterize instead. Is there nothing I can do to undo?

Thanks and fingers crossed for me.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2017

Meg,

It is always recommended to make backups/save different versions under different names/at different places, and you can also duplicate the layer and go on in the new layer when you have reached important steps, so the work made hitherto is kept. And always leave copies of artwork behind when you do something irreversible/destructive.

Depending on your OS (settings) you may consider whether something like Time Machine or an Image can rescue your artwork.

Have you anything to fall back upon?

    Theresa J
    Community Expert
    Theresa JCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 13, 2017

    Time Machine has saved my but on several occasions similar to this one.  

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 13, 2017

      https://forums.adobe.com/people/Theresa+J  schrieb

      Time Machine has saved my but on several occasions similar to this one.  

      So true.

      Bill Silbert
      Community Expert
      Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 13, 2017

      Since it is now a raster object you might try to use image trace to once again make it raster. You will need to experiment with the many possible settings in the Image Trace dialog box (found under the Windows menu) to find a way to bring the result even close to what it originally looked like. Remember to hit the Expand button in the Illustrator top menu bar after you've run the trace to make it into editable vector objects. Since you haven't shown what the original looks like it is difficult to say how successful this will be but it will give you something to work with.

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