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Hi All. I'm in a workplace that handles artwork from outside clients and others in our own organization across several versions of Ai CC.
We set up production templates that are organized into layers and send them to the clients, who add in artwork then they send them back to us, where other departments do their design tweaks and prepress workflows - all steps being done in PDF format.
The problem I'm having is I'm using CC 2021 and when I create or save a template organized into layers, someone that doesnt have my version of Ai looses all the layers when they open the PDF in Ai for further editing. Instead, the layers are all clipped into Layer 1 together.
This is creating a big headache for us and our clients - is there any way to avoid this while staying in PDF format? I know the simple answer is for everyone to be on the same version of Ai but we have no control over what our outside customers use. Any help would be amazing 🙂
If you want to keep layers, then you need to save as AI and then select the lower version.
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They can only open the PDF in Illustrator beause there is an AI file embedded in it. That file will *always* be the version you have. So if they have lower version, Illustrator will open the actual PDF. And it cannot read the PDF layers, because it's different concept.
Please see this about Illustrator files: https://youtu.be/IpDh8Y7q8yE
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Thank you Monika! I didnt know about the embedded files.
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You're welcome!
Does that solve the question?
Or is there something you still need to know to solve your issue?
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Well, I was hoping that I could save PDFs that kept their organized layers when people on lower versions of CC opened them. It sounds like we need to use .ai formats for all the other designers then use PDFs only when the designs have been approved.
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If you want to keep layers, then you need to save as AI and then select the lower version.