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Editing PDF files in Illustrator? Any gotchas?
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| For quite a while now I've been creating or editing all my graphics
files in Illustrator, then saving copies of these as PDF files to use in
preparing documents or presentations with Acrobat -- all the while
preserving the Illustrator versions in .ai or .eps format as my "master
copies" of these graphics.
I've finally realized that I can just as easily edit the PDF files
themselves in Illustrator; save and use them in PDF with Illustrator
editing capabilities preserved -- and there seems to be no need at all
to keep a master copy in Illustrator format.
I'm just asking: Are there any hidden "gotchas" in this approach? Or
any major downsides, other than maybe slightly larger PDF file sizes and
the extra step of opening the PDFs in Illustrator when I need to revise
them? (Assuming one does adequate version control and keeps adequate
backups of the PDF files)
I'm not doing anything very fancy graphically in these files -- just
vector plots and text labels -- not even using layers in most cases.
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| Aandi Inston 2006-05-11, 10:16 pm |
| AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote:
>For quite a while now I've been creating or editing all my graphics
>files in Illustrator, then saving copies of these as PDF files to use in
>preparing documents or presentations with Acrobat -- all the while
>preserving the Illustrator versions in .ai or .eps format as my "master
>copies" of these graphics.
>
>I've finally realized that I can just as easily edit the PDF files
>themselves in Illustrator; save and use them in PDF with Illustrator
>editing capabilities preserved -- and there seems to be no need at all
>to keep a master copy in Illustrator format.
>
>I'm just asking: Are there any hidden "gotchas" in this approach?
Caveats about using Illustrator as a general PDF editor (which isn't
exactly what you asked):
1. Fonts must be installed locally (embedded in the PDF is not good
enough).
2. Not everything a PDF might have in it will work in Illustrator.
Caveats about using PDF as your normal format from Illustrator, with
"preserve editing capabilities"
1. If you, or anyone else, uses ANY OTHER PDF editor to change the
PDF, then you reopen in Illustrator, the original PDF, not the edited
PDF, will open.
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Aandi Inston quite@dial.pipex.com http://www.quite.com
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| > 1. If you, or anyone else, uses ANY OTHER PDF editor to change the
> PDF, then you reopen in Illustrator, the original PDF, not the edited
> PDF, will open.
Aandi, is that because of Illustrator taking the first XREF table
instead of the most recent one?
Waldo
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| Aandi Inston 2006-05-12, 3:17 am |
| Waldo <nobody@onbody.co> wrote:
>
>Aandi, is that because of Illustrator taking the first XREF table
>instead of the most recent one?
No. Illustrator embeds private data in the PDF (PieceInfo) which
contains the Illustrator data, and if present this is used instead of
the regular page contents.
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Aandi Inston quite@dial.pipex.com http://www.quite.com
Please support usenet! Post replies and follow-ups, don't e-mail them.
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| Aandi Inston wrote:
> Waldo <nobody@onbody.co> wrote:
>
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>
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> No. Illustrator embeds private data in the PDF (PieceInfo) which
> contains the Illustrator data, and if present this is used instead of
> the regular page contents.
> ----------------------------------------
> Aandi Inston quite@dial.pipex.com http://www.quite.com
> Please support usenet! Post replies and follow-ups, don't e-mail them.
>
Okay and that information is ignored by other application. That makes
sense. Thanks!
Waldo
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| In article <4463837d.2446409120@read.news.uk.uu.net>,
quite@dial.pipex.con (Aandi Inston) wrote:
>
> Caveats about using PDF as your normal format from Illustrator, with
> "preserve editing capabilities"
>
> 1. If you, or anyone else, uses ANY OTHER PDF editor to change the
> PDF, then you reopen in Illustrator, the original PDF, not the edited
> PDF, will open.
Ah, that's a very good point. Thank you.
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