Dear Friends --

Had an "AI" file emailed to me, from what I understand it's an adobe illustrator file.

I can see it in my Foxit PDF reader but I need to be able to import it into my graphics
software.....so I need a JPG, PNG or whatever.

Any help on this please? Conversion software that anyone can suggest?

Thanks so much.

-- Mike

Try renaming it to .pdf and opening it in Acrobat. Then you can take a screen shot.

Here's a detailed article on the issues:

http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archiv … rator.aspx

Note that if you're going to be doing a lot of this, and can foot a cost of US$89, one of the best vector-based graphics packages on the planet is Xara Xtreme. It handles .ai files just fine and does the conversion to pretty much any raster format there is.

http://www.xara.com/us/products/xtreme/

Yeah -- right after I posted I see I can simply rename to PDF -- have never edited a PDF project before though so that's a new one.

I'll look at that Xara and I also just saw something about Inkscape? (a freebie?)

Looks like I may have to learn a new program -- I suppose converting a PDF to another format may be the wrong thing to do? Because the JPG, PNG etc are not vector based so it CAN'T be done? (Or a giant step down in quality)?

It would be nice if I could get a high quality image into my Printmaster program from this PDF. I know Printmaster inside out.

I see in that article I can use "expresion design" to convert.

Is it ok to convert a PDF to say....PNG or JPG?

Does the image suffer? (This is more of a logo rather than a photo/art).

I tried 3 different online image conversion sites and had no luck getting an output file -- even converthub.com

My file is 1.16mb -- maybe that's the problem.

I'm also searching for image conversion software bu finding NOTHING !

Geez they have video file conversion programs that will handle any file in the world but I'm not seeing any image converters.

I really just want to get this PDF to a PNG so I can use it.

The only real problem with converting a vector image to a bitmapped one is changing the resolution. As you zoom into a raster image it gets jaggy even with antialiasing. Vector images can be infinitely resized with no quality loss. The solution is size the vector version as desired before conversion and you're fine.

Did you try Inkscape? I haven't used it in a long time but it is pretty good. You can try Xara Xtreme for free, also.

Yeah -- going from a PDF to an image is pretty crappy as I can now see.

The Inkscape is not very user friendly, typical of open source stuff -- didn't like it at
all.

Looking at the Xara you recommended and watching the tutoriials -- looks nice so I'll download a trial on that.

I can directly import the PDF into Xara?

Can I add then edit by adding some test or whatever and then print at high resolution?

Also -- does Xara have a magic wand tool to make transparent backgrounds?


I'm also looking at PDF split and merge, that may be a simple option for me as well.
Just add another PDF, combine and presto.

That Xara looks very nice.

Yes.



Not sure what you're asking, here. You can edit the content from within Xtreme, or import additional files and merge them, or whatever. It takes some practice and gained experience with using the tool but you can do a lot with it. When you export your image to a bit mapped version you can set the resolution at that time.



Xtreme isn't a bitmap editing tool like Photoshop. There's nothing to "magic wand" in a vector graphic, everything is an object. If there's a part of it you don't want you just select that part and delete it. There's a learning curve you'll need to climb if you plan to do any editing or creation of vector graphics, no matter what tool you eventually use, because it's an entirely different way to think about images. Xara (that's the name of the company, not the software) has a pretty good support forum where you can ask questions if you get stuck--just be sure to search the forums before you ask so you aren't asking something that's already been asked a gazillion times. They appreciate that.



Simple is always good, and if all you're planning to do is merge and convert images to bitmap formats then Xtreme would probably be overkill.