Inspiring

Question

Windows Explorer preview of .ai files

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
April 6, 2018
7 replies
27117 views

At least on this machine (Win 7 with CC) some Illustrator files will preview well in Explorer, and some don't.

I created a simple illustration in Illustrator and saved it in a number of names and formats. Explorer previews it just fine!

I have a lot of graphics that I pulled out of PDFs - open in Illustrator, save as .ai, strip the extra stuff and edit as needed.

Most of them will not preview correctly. The preview pane shows some old version of the PDF. It never seems to reflect changes in the file done in AI.

I even saved a modified file as PDF, opened and revised it in Acrobat Pro (ok, ver 8.3) and resaved it.

Then opened that revised PDF in AI and resaved it.

Still the ancient preview shows for the .ai in Explorer - though the PDF previews fine.

Any theories?

T

The Butler

New Participant

This seems like too easier answer to a question that has taken years without a fix BUT....

I just save my AI files as a .PDF and Windows Explorer happily gives a thumbnail preview (as long as the Adobe Reader app is set to display thumbnail previews (From PDF Reader, [Edit], General, [/]Enable PDFthumbnail preview.

This works for me on XP, Win 7 and Win10.

When saving from Illustrator I save as PDF and choose to [/]Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities.

CorySouthpaw

Participating Frequently

Seeing still unanswered, here's my 2¢. I also wanted Ai files to preview in Explorer, but never cared for Bridge as it's just one more program to run and eat resources. Came across PSD codec by ArdFry Imaging, and it's perfect! Granted not free, but well worth $20 IMO and integrates perfectly with Windows 7. Not just Ai files but INDD, PSD, Ai, EPS plus more I believe. Check out snap below, you can clearly see they're all Ai files and they preview just fine. (thumbnail and preview pane)

Regarding Ai 'preview' issue, have you explored "Create PDF Compatible File" checkbox. For files WITH preview issues you may want to verify that box is checked. Hopefully some of this helps!

J

Jay MaechtlenAuthor

Inspiring

Another late reply - yes, I always save AI files with the "PDF compatible file" option selected.

I guess if I were really curious, I could go spelunking into the bare files, and figure out the differences between a PDF-originated AI file and one created with data copied from the PDF-originated file.

Not going to attempt that right now...

J

Jay MaechtlenAuthor

Inspiring

Since we've had some updates since I reported this, I checked again. Files that had bad preview still do. Tried "save as" with PDF compat turned off, close and reopen, save as - pdf compat turned on, still broken preview. Create new file and paste all contents of broken preview file in new one, save - new file previews perfectly. When opening a PDF and saving as AI, Illustrator somehow does not clean everything properly - it creates a file that Win Explorer (at least in Win 7) can't preview. And you can't see a preview when browsing from ID to place a file.

ryan_edwards

Inspiring

just use adobe bridge -- it is adobes window explorer and very good at previewing/zooming/adding meta data

J

Jay MaechtlenAuthor

Inspiring

And something that I should have mentioned in the beginning - it matters, because the preview also fails when browsing for a file to place when using Ctrl-D.

Not just browsing around in the file structure, when Bridge or something else can easily be used.

Is there an effective alternative to place a file (especially when linking a graphic onto a page of text) that lets you browse previews?

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

The only reliable PDF viewer is Acrobat. Use it and none other.

jane-e

Community Expert

Adobe Bridge is an awesome Previewer. Have you tried that?

J

Jay MaechtlenAuthor

Inspiring

Yes, we know there are lots of previewers.

That is not the point of the question.

My specific question was, "why do some AI files preview in Win Explorer, and some don't?"

And "why doesn't AI know how to save files (created from PDFs) that will preview consistently?"

Bridge is ok, but seems clumsy when I'm looking for content across various directories.

Omar.Fathy

Community Expert

in Windows 10 you can use the preview pane to see the Ai files:

or you can use applications like:

SageThumbs

J

Jay MaechtlenAuthor

Inspiring

doesn't matter - we are talking Win 7 here, and the Explorer preview pane.

Omar.Fathy

Community Expert

so you can use apps like Sega Thumbs in win7

John Mensinger

Community Expert

I dunno. I've never used Explorer's preview window much (running CC in WIN7 here too), so I initially theorized it probably has something to do with whether an AI is saved with PDF Compatibility enabled. (Your description sort of hints at it.) But after trying several things, I can't reproduce your problem; I get correct previews of AI files no matter how I save them.

If I happen upon anything that might help, I'll post back here.

J

Jay MaechtlenAuthor

Inspiring

if you open a pdf in Illustrator, then save it as .ai, you are more likely to see the issue.

(one of the docs I just tested was built in ID CS5, so it's not just from non-Adobe software)

If I copy the contents of one of the bad docs into a new file and save it, it works/previews fine.

So something in the format of a .ai file that was created from a pdf may keep it from previewing correctly.

John Mensinger

Community Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Jay+Maechtlen wrote
. . . something in the format of a .ai file that was created from a pdf may keep it from previewing correctly.

Not sure "format of an .ai file" is an accurate characterization, but I'd agree it is likely something inherent in the file's original construct; something that survives the re-save in Illustrator.

SageThumbs

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded