File compatibility

[Patrick Licata]

I know Corel X3 will open .eps and .ai files, but does anyone know what version of those files is the most recent that Corel X3 will open? I've had customers send me newer versions of .ai and X3 will not open them, but if I tell them to send them in an old version it usually works.
Thanks, Patrick

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I have AI CS3 and could not open an AI file in CD X3 until I saved it down to Illustrator CS or lower. CD X3 could not open Illustrator CS2 or CS3.

[Bruce Clumpner]

Adobe's upgrade path seems to lock out everyone, even their own customers. I'm hoping you'll see a patch to CS5 for X4, but probably not for earlier versions.

[Patrick Licata]

Thanks guys! Mike, I guess I'll tell people cs or earlier. Not sure how their versions go or what the cs stands for, but if they use it I'm sure they will.
Thanks again!

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

According to my AI CS3, I can save to previous versions in the following order: CS2, CS, 10, 9, etc. If I needed to tell someone, I would probably tell them version 10 so they do not get confused with the multiple CS versions.

[Bill Cunningham]

A lot of the .ai files I get, are compressed and I have to tell the customer to send me a uncompressed file. X4 won't open a compressed .ai file, don't know if x5 will? Perhaps Adobe's default file save is compressed files.

[Bill Overturf]

Patrick the CS stands for Creative Suite. Bill here is how you get around the compressed file issue. When you import the file you need to change from All File Formats to PDF only and so far it has imported every one of the compressed AI files every time. Dont even remember where I learned that but its very useful. We do alot of work for local schools that have the latest version of AI and the teachers can never figure out how to save the file uncompressed so it really helps.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Patrick the CS stands for Creative Suite. Bill here is how you get around the compressed file issue. When you import the file you need to change from All File Formats to PDF only and so far it has imported every one of the compressed AI files every time. Dont even remember where I learned that but its very useful. We do alot of work for local schools that have the latest version of AI and the teachers can never figure out how to save the file uncompressed so it really helps.

This didn't work for me. I tried changing the File type to PDF (and AI) and left the rest of the defaults. I still receive an error when I try to import the AI file that was saved in AI CS3 format using my CD X3. When the file was saved in AI, the defaults were used - create pdf compatible file, embed icc profiles, & use compression.

[Bill Overturf]

This didn't work for me. I tried changing the File type to PDF (and AI) and left the rest of the defaults. I still receive an error when I try to import the AI file that was saved in AI CS3 format using my CD X3. When the file was saved in AI, the defaults were used - create pdf compatible file, embed icc profiles, & use compression.

We went from 10 to X4 so I never got to play with X3. We started having a problem with some CS4 and most of the CS5 files. In my limited research I guess the compression option has been around for a few versions of AI not sure how many. In CS5 the default save options was to compress the file. We have one client who sets up alot of art for us for screen printing and thats how we discovered the compress setting nobody else ever knew what we were talking about.

[Bill Overturf]

Also wanted to let everybody know X5 will import compressed AI files with no problems. I have only had it for a week and havent been on the computer it is installed on much to play with it but it seems to have alot more functions and tools that will make logo recreation much easier. I do more sublimation work than engraving so I'm more on the full color side and I can say it is much better at matching colors than previous versions.

[Bill Cunningham]

Patrick the CS stands for Creative Suite. Bill here is how you get around the compressed file issue. When you import the file you need to change from All File Formats to PDF only and so far it has imported every one of the compressed AI files every time. Dont even remember where I learned that but its very useful. We do alot of work for local schools that have the latest version of AI and the teachers can never figure out how to save the file uncompressed so it really helps.

Thanks for the tip.. I'll give it a shot the next time one floats in...