Inkscape

cannot open purchased adobe ai file with new version of inkscape

Asked by Sandy

I just purchased a vector ai file from adobe stock and then downloaded the latest version of Inkscape however it won't open the ai file?

Am I doing something wrong, please assist.

Cheers
Sandy

The error message I am getting is:
Failed to load the requested file

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Hachmann (marenhachmann) said : 		#1

Hi Sandy,

here are some questions, so we may find the cause of this problem:

Is there an import dialog when you try to open the file?
What happens if you select 'Import via poppler'?
Also play with the other import options, if the dialog is available.

Does the file look right if viewed with a different program?
Does the file have a strange file name?

I guess it's not possible to upload the file for copyright reasons, so it will be difficult for us to test with this specific file. Is there a free file somewhere from the same source that exhibits the same problem?

Which operating system are you on? Version?
Which Inkscape file did you download from our website? (link)

Kind regards,
 Maren

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#2

Please note also that there are two basic differing types or versions of the AI file format (both use the same suffix "ai"):
- AI saved with Adobe Illustrator <= 8.0: PostScript-based
- AI saved with Adobe Illustrator >= 9.0: normally includes a copy of the content in the PDF format, apart from Illustrator's native PFG.

I don't know the Adobe Stock site, nor what kind of files they offer - there might be a slight chance that you bought a file which was saved in the old (PostScript-based) format, or maybe it was saved with current Illustrator but without the PDF part and only with the proprietary part solely useful for Adobe Illustrator (PGF) [1].

If the AI file is PostScript-based:
Inkscape by default attempts to open *.ai files as the file format saved with current versions of Adobe Illustrator (i.e. the one based on PDF, called "Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and above (*.ai)" in Inkscape). To open PostScript-based AI files, you need to open the file from within Inkscape, and to select the corresponding file type in the file chooser dialog - "Adobe Illustrator 8.0 and below (*.ai)" - further down the list of supported file formats for open/import.

<off-topic>
@hachmann - yes, there's a report tracking this inconvenience/limitation that input extensions are not based on mime-type but on suffix: bug #1259858 (and duplicates).
</off-topic>

--
[1] see also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator_Artwork

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#3

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Needs information' state without activity for the last 15 days.