haumana

inkscape eps to illustrator - blank (masked) box

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I've tried to find the answer, but haven't come across anyone else having this issue.

I've vectorized a raster image in inkscape, then proceeded to drag'n'drop, and even used the "place" function, but each time the file opens in illustrator (CS3 & CS5.5) as a box with the graphic hidden. I've tried it as an .eps file and an .svg file, but still cannot figure out how to make the graphic appear in illustrator so that I can actually see it. Sometimes, there's even excess white space around the graphic and I don't know how to get rid of that either. Is anyone familiar with this? AI is still very, very foreign to me, but I now find myself needing to hit the ground running with it, and would prefer if the graphics I work with are vectors and visible.

Thanks in advance!

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Can you post a link to the eps and or svg in question?  First thing that comes to mind is your using a clipping mask which don't go from Inkscape to Illustrator well all the time.  In my mind this is when using PDF but might effect eps too.  You might also be using a filter effect which Illustrator can't deal with.  Might be something else, transparency/alpha/opacity, some gradient or other effect that typical gets rasterized out of Inkscape to eps.

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Okay, so here's something strange - at least to me.

If I double click on the graphic file, AI will open it up and show it just fine. If I 'place' or drag'n'drop into an open (existing) file, that's when I get the white box. I am not seeing that a workaround is to copy and paste from the opened by double clicking file to the actual working file that I need it in. Strange ???

NSC 02.EPS

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Same here with corel draw X6.

9 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

i didn't have any problem downloading it and importing it into my Flexidesigner 10 software.  

 

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Opened in CorelDraw X7 but not in Inkscape.

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Inkscape won't open .eps files.   That is why you save as .svg and .eps.  Incase you need to edit you still have the original .svg file. 

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I think it is something with the bounding box size.  The bounding box, (page size in Inkscape,) is 2052.00000 x 1234.66675 px.  The graphic itself is only 959.988 x 152.049 px.  Inkscape has had bugs about eps bounding box size and may still have.  https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/380501 .   One quote from that bug report "

The EPS specification is requires that the bounding box be the smallest rectangle enclosing all marks on the page. The 0.46 behavior was a bug.

If your really want the bounding box to be the whole page you can draw a white line (assuming your page color is white) around the page."

If I open it in Illustrator CC 2018, it opens, showing the bounding box size, but parts are off canvas if I drag and drop to an open document.   Very early versions of Illustrator might not be showing the off canvas areas.  I can't remember back to those versions how it handles off canvas or off page areas.  It might be clipping part of the drawing.   I suspect there is a way to make it show, maybe by increasing the document size.  Here I set the page size to the artwork size in Inkscape and exported out of Inkscape.  I THINK this will work for your Illustrator version.  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ls98ux1418usxsb/NSC 02.eps?dl=0  If it does not work, try saving out of Inkscape as post script, .ps.  CorelDraw 2018 didn't have a problem with it.  It relies on Ghostscript.

MZ SKEETER

Inkscape will open eps files.  It can use internal code or poppler/cario libraries.  It prompts on open or import for the method.  It used to rely on Ghostscript, but doesn't in current versions.  But your better off always in Inkscape keeping a native file format of Inkscape svg for later editability.

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Hmmm... I tried your file - still the same issue. If I try to place or drop it into an existing layout, it comes up the white box, but if I open it on it's own, it totally visible.

Illustrator is still an oddity to me, and I'm trying to avoid buying more software, because the Adobe suite cost me an arm and leg back in the day, so I'm trying to get as much mileage out of it. :lol:  But hey, if I can't see what I'm doing using a simple drop and drag then I might just have to bite the bullet on this. Dang I Cyber Monday was tomorrow! Hahaha.

Thanks for trying to work on this. At least I know that Corel will display the graphic as a graphic and not as a box, so that's a win right there.

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1 hour ago, MZ SKEETER said:

Inkscape won't open .eps files.   That is why you save as .svg and .eps.  Incase you need to edit you still have the original .svg file. 

True for older versions of Inkscape, but the current version, and I thing the previous 2 revs support opening EPS files without any additional software requirements.

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2 hours ago, haumana said:

Hmmm... I tried your file - still the same issue. If I try to place or drop it into an existing layout, it comes up the white box, but if I open it on it's own, it totally visible.

Illustrator is still an oddity to me, and I'm trying to avoid buying more software, because the Adobe suite cost me an arm and leg back in the day, so I'm trying to get as much mileage out of it. :lol:  But hey, if I can't see what I'm doing using a simple drop and drag then I might just have to bite the bullet on this. Dang I Cyber Monday was tomorrow! Hahaha.

Thanks for trying to work on this. At least I know that Corel will display the graphic as a graphic and not as a box, so that's a win right there.

Try saving as .PS then from Inkscape instead of encapsulated post script.  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ed6r48p98o9f67p/AAADKJKV87njxIymphRM3Dlea?dl=0

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The results are hit and miss. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, or inconsistently to get wonky results. I will keep on trying.

On a tangent question - AI doesn't have a native crop tool. I looked it up online and there this whole process using a clipping mask, etc. I swear my brain is going to explode with AI. Does Corel have a native cropping tool for vector images?

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Yup. Square, and fast if that is what you are looking for. (just did a quick check, not intense)

AI has a very steep learning cure. Corel, not so much. But the curve is still there.

 

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No vector graphics really has  a crop tool.  That said, CorelDraw has a crop tool.  What I mean is vector graphics lend themselves to boolean operations to change shapes, (path finder in Illustrator, Shaping tool in Draw.)  Crop is something you do to raster images, not vector ones.  That said, Draw does have a thing that will crop vectors, erasing nodes.  It can go sideways at times.  It also has PowerClip, which is a more versatile way to do clipping masks than others. It also, unlike say Inkscape will do an actual crop on a bitmap.  Draw has several bitmap tools built in.  If in Inkscape you set a clip, then do "Make bitmap copy" it is pretty much a crop.

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Actually in X6 I tried the crop tool and it cut the vector in the square (rectangle) just as I wanted. Was kind of shocked myself.

Simple vector.

 

3 minutes ago, dcbevins said:

No vector graphics really has  a crop tool.  That said, CorelDraw has a crop tool.  What I mean is vector graphics lend themselves to boolean operations to change shapes, (path finder in Illustrator, Shaping tool in Draw.)  Crop is something you do to raster images, not vector ones.  That said, Draw does have a thing that will crop vectors, erasing nodes.  It can go sideways at times.  It also has PowerClip, which is a more versatile way to do clipping masks than others.

 

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Human,

I placed your ups into a regular working ai file in CS5. Prior to embedding it there definitely was a large box around the traced words but once I embed them the box is gone. If you only have the words in your file then I think it's fine but if there is something else that is supposed to be there that's missing it would not be. If you are ending up with the box after embed then you may have something set up weird on your file handling settings. Attached a screen shot of the page in preferences about file handling. That may not even be where the issue is but possibly. 

Screen Shot 2018-12-17 at 7.24.45 AM.png

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easiest way to crop a vector is to draw a box on top of what you want to get rid of and do a punch through, punch out, or what ever it's called in the software you happen to be using.

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5 hours ago, darcshadow said:

easiest way to crop a vector is to draw a box on top of what you want to get rid of and do a punch through, punch out, or what ever it's called in the software you happen to be using.

I typically working SBE would absolutely rely on the punch/weld feature, and hopefully soon will be branching out in VM to get my feet wet, but for this project I needed to work on the layout in AI. I don't think there is such an easy feature in AI that will do that :-\

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5 hours ago, haumana said:

I typically working SBE would absolutely rely on the punch/weld feature, and hopefully soon will be branching out in VM to get my feet wet, but for this project I needed to work on the layout in AI. I don't think there is such an easy feature in AI that will do that :-\

It's like anything else, once you learn it it doesn't seem so complicated. Similar to driving. Remember when you very first started everything seemed impossible to figure out and be smooth. Now you don't even think about the little things. AI is the same. But yeah maybe more like a pilots license ha ha. 

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