I am running Freehand 10 on a PC, and get artwork all the time from clients 
in EPS format, which is great, except they will never open in Freehand! I th
ink only EPSs that are created in Freehand will open. Has anyone else notice
d this?? Do I need to change some type of setting? I can open native Illustr
ator files just fine (sometimes a little data will be missing, like colors o
r gradients, but it's vector at least), yet when I try opening or importing 
an EPS I just get a blank box with no data at all. I'm able to open the EPS 
in Photoshop, but alas, that's not vector. 
Any help is appreciated!

Ask your clients to save the file as an Illustrator Version 8 eps. Freehand 
should then be able to open the file.

David

In article <cf3e30cee853fcd5c31c96e0fcc64132@news.thenewsgroups.com>,
munky209 <munky209.19gvem@mail.forum4designers.com> wrote:

> I am running Freehand 10 on a PC, and get artwork all the time from
> clients in EPS format, which is great, except they will never open in
> Freehand! I think only EPSs that are created in Freehand will open. Has
> anyone else noticed this?? Do I need to change some type of setting? I
> can open native Illustrator files just fine (sometimes a little data
> will be missing, like colors or gradients, but it's vector at least),
> yet when I try opening or importing an EPS I just get a blank box with
> no data at all. I'm able to open the EPS in Photoshop, but alas, that's
> not vector.

FreeHand doesn't include a PostScript interpreter; when it opens FH
"Editable EPS" files it ignores the PostScript code and reads the
included 'native' version of the artwork. Other kinds of EPSF, including
the 'non-editable' kinds FH can export, don't contain any FH artwork as
such, so can't be parsed. But the "blank box" you're seeing should still
print to a PS printer (or Distill) correctly as part of the output --
you just can't edit it in FH.

If you need to edit something, ask your client to export it or save it
down to an older Illustrator (v8 or earlier) format, or maybe write a
print-quality PDF.

--
Odysseus

Odysseus wrote:
> If you need to edit something, ask your client to export it or save it
> down to an older Illustrator (v8 or earlier) format, or maybe write a
> print-quality PDF.

In my experience, FHMX will not open a print-quality PDF created with
Distiller 6.0.1. I have tried many with no luck. :(

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.4

I am using Freehand 10. Perhaps that is why I have no trouble with importing
 distilled vector based PDF's.

E Morris

In article <BD2009C9.1F52F%jarndt@shawbiz.ca>,
Judy Arndt <jarndt@shawbiz.ca> wrote:

> Odysseus wrote: 
>
> In my experience, FHMX will not open a print-quality PDF created with
> Distiller 6.0.1. I have tried many with no luck. :(

Isn't that just a question what version of PDF you specify in
Distiller's job options? FH8 can open 1.3 and 1.4 just fine - don't know
about Distiller 6 though.

--
Cheers   Martin

Martin,
From Distiller 6 I have been Distilling Postscript files to Acrobat 1.3
compliant files. If the file contains only process colors and no live text,
FHMX will open it.

If the PDF contains any live text FHMX opens the entire file as a blank
page. Running the Acrobat 'PDF optimizer' to unimbed the font makes no
difference.

If the PDF contains spot inks, in FHMX all spot fills will be black, all
spot strokes will be white.

I certainly hope FH 12 will have better PDF support.

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.4
Acrobat Pro/Distiller 6.0.1

Martin Sammtleben wrote:
 
>
> Isn't that just a question what version of PDF you specify in
> Distiller's job options? FH8 can open 1.3 and 1.4 just fine - don't know
> about Distiller 6 though.