Opening PDFs in AI- What's the rules?

Question

If I make a document in AI and save it as PDF on my own computer, it'll open again just fine later on.

Unless it was made in an older version of AI (I've allowed an Update recently) or made by someone else.

I'm just not sure what the rules are for saving and opening PDFs.

I'm hoping to avoid forevermore that annoying Import dialogue that pops up whenever you open a PDF from an earlier version of AI, or one that someone else has made in AI. If you choose Import then AI will make a horrible, horrible mess of the PDF, not just outlining text but breaking the whole thing (can't believe this is still an issue in 2019).

I shall, of course, be saving a .ai file in future along with the PDF file and it's smaller Optimised counterpart.

Any advice?

Monika Gause · Accepted Answer

An older version is not an issue.It's all about the option "Illustrator editability". If that is checked and you open the file in the same or a higher version, you're good, because additionally to the PDF file part, there is a full AI file in it. Illustrator doesn't even care about the PDF. It sees the AI file and opens it.You might get into issues when the file has gone corrupt when saving it. THis does occasionally happen when saving over netowkrs or on USB thumb drivers or the like.Please see here about files: How Illustrator saves files - YouTube

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