Illy can't open .eps file?

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Anyone have any idea why an .eps file I got from a customer's designer won't open in Illustrator? It says, "The file xxxx is an unknown format and cannot be opened." I'm sure it's an .eps file. The designed had it zipped with Stuffit so I had to download a trial to open that and now the file won't open anyway. I've contacted the customer to put me in touch with the designer but that might be awhile so I thought I would ask here.
Thanks!

 

[synergy_jim]

usually when I get that error, I open a new drawing and place it into it. 9 times out of 10 this will work.

 

[tcorn1965]

Anyone have any idea why an .eps file I got from a customer's designer won't open in Illustrator? It says, "The file xxxx is an unknown format and cannot be opened." I'm sure it's an .eps file. The designed had it zipped with Stuffit so I had to download a trial to open that and now the file won't open anyway. I've contacted the customer to put me in touch with the designer but that might be awhile so I thought I would ask here.
Thanks!

Could be the designer is using a newer version of AI than you, like CS4

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

I can't place it. Says it's not a "valid .eps file".

When I get files that are created in a higher version, it will say, "This file was created in a newer version" blah, blah, blah so it's not that.

Do you think the designer might be using a Mac? (I'm PC)

 

[HaroldDesign]

I've had that happen. Usually happens with a file that was uploaded to an ftp server, and the connection got dropped before the file was finished uploading.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Well, he sent 2 separate files (for 2 separate designs/signs) and it's doing the same thing on both. It seems to me it would be strange if what you're saying happened both times. No? Thanks, tho!

 

[Circleville Signs]

Bad file upload/download. Try re-downloading the files. If that doesn't work, have him RE-SAVE them, and then re-upload.


Gary

 

[HaroldDesign]

Well, he sent 2 separate files (for 2 separate designs/signs) and it's doing the same thing on both. It seems to me it would be strange if what you're saying happened both times. No? Thanks, tho!

Did it happen to be an ftp situation? If that happens to be the problem, it would happen to both files if they were uploading at the same time.

 

[Fred Weiss]

If the file had a Stuffit extension it was most likely created on a Mac since Stuffit is like Zip but for Mac computers. It would have an .SIT extension. Like a ZIP file it must be unstuffed. Since Mac files are often saved without extensions, it is entirely possible that someone along the way thought all they had to do was to rename the file with an EPS extension and it would magically become an EPS. Or it is possible you are dealing with an EPS generated in Photoshop which is a whole different flavor of EPS.

To take a different approach, try:

1. Opening the file in a text editor and see if there is anything that resembles an English plain text header. Even if not, there may be some clues there as to what program saved the file.

2. Opening the file in Photoshop. If it's a Photoshop EPS it may just be recognized.

3. Changing the extension to some common image formats like JPG and TIF to see if that makes them recognizable.

here is an example of the first eight lines of an Illustrator EPS file:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%Creator: Adobe Illustrator(TM) 3.2
%%AI8_CreatorVersion: 8
%%For: (Fred Weiss) (Allied Computer Graphics, Inc.)
%%Title: (acg00219_Baseball_Pitcher.eps)
%%CreationDate: (1/21/2006) (12:08 PM)
%%BoundingBox: 184 124 429 628
%%DocumentProcessColors: Black

By contrast, an EPS saved from Photoshop is in code until you get to the fifth line where it says:

Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows

 

[longbeachmichael]

look in the .sit file for another EPS file thats bigger. for some reason mac's put a second copy of the files with a . or something in front of the file name, this file is usually very small and is not the correct one to open.

 

[tanneji]

It might also be a MAC to PC thing. I have had that before with Stuffit Expander files not extracting well on a PC. Get the original files not zipped and see if that does it.

 

[Typestries]

Good posts by all, ++ for fred's idea. That's an old school and highly effective preflight trick to diagnose EPS errors.

 

[Fred Weiss]

If there are two files in the Stuffit, then one is the Mac resource fork file and the other is the Mac data fork file. The data fork is the one you want and will be larger than the resource fork as noted by longbeachmichael. What is confusing is that these files will usually have identical names so saving them both causes one to overwrite the other on a PC.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine the larger of the two, save it without saving the other by dragging and dropping it, and then change it's extension to EPS. Then see if that will open in Illustrator.

 

[tcorn1965]

Your mission, should you choose to accept it.

Too Funny!

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Thanks everyone! I talked to the designer and we didn't get it fixed but before we even talked about it too much, we decided to just use the .jpg file. It looks fine, I guess. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out! (Especially you, Fred! I know that took some time!)
:U Rock:

 

[Bill Modzel]

I had the same issue last week. From a PC to my Mac. They originally send it as an attached eps. I suggested that they zip it as occasionally, code does get messed up in email.
When that didn't work I asked them to re-save as a straight .ai file. They attached that one and everything opened fine.
No answer here but this wasn't the first time it's happened to me either.