Importin Illustrator CS eps into Word

[giovanni]

Hi,

I am running Word 2003 in Windows XP (all patches, SP, updates, etc. applied
ot the OS and to Office) and Illustrator CS1.

I have quite a few Illustrator files I want to insert in a Word document.
The output will be printed to a Post Script printer (actually to Adobe
Acrobat for that matter, then to a physical laser printer), so I would like
to use the EPS file format.

The problem is that Illustrator EPS files above version 3 (that is 8, 9 and
10 in the export dialog box in Illustrator) will not show up in my word
document, no matter what preview option I choose. The output will print
perfectly to any Post Script Printer, including Acrobat, but because I have a
large number of files it would be very helpful to see at least a crappy
preview in Word. Also, Illustrator 3 EPS is not optimal because I seem to
have some font problem while converting from Illustrator 10 files.

Any workaround? Thank you for your adice.
Giovanni

 

[Mary Sauer]

This article explains your issue:
The limitations of graphics import filters in Word 2003 and in Word 2002
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290362/en-us

 

[giovanni]

Thank you for your link, it was very instructive, therefore I am assuming
there is no woraround for the problem I suggested? Is there an update or an
alternative EPS filter for Word? Thank you again for your help

 

[Mary Sauer]

I have no problem inserting .eps files into Word. Might try Ghostscript and
Ghost Gum. Some good information.

 

[giovanni]

How are you eps file generated? I have only problems with eps files from
Illustrator CS1. Eps files generated from Matlab or other progrmas don't seem
to be problematic.

 

[Mary Sauer]

I don't have Illustrator, but I do have many files that were generated from the
program through a subscription service. Maybe this blurb will help:
Consider, for example, the introduction of Transparency in Illustrator 9. That
was a major change. EPS files can represent transparent objects...yet
Illustrator 8, not supporting transparency, could not read or write an EPS file
that contained transparent objects. Thus, in order for Illustrator 9 (or later)
to write an EPS file that Illustrator 8 can read, one needs to specifically
choose that older format so that Illustrator 9 knows to flatten the transparent
objects into opaque objects before writing an Illustrator 8 compatible EPS file.

Ghostscript
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/

 

[giovanni]

Thank you Mary, I think there must be something in the new Illustrator format
that Word does not understand. Hopefully it will be fixed in new releases. I
do use ghostscritp. Anyhow thanks, I think I will rasterize or save as EPS 3
my figs before using them in Word.

 

[giovanni]

Hi Taz,

Thank you for your reply. I already did a bunch of tests with PNG files.
They work alright, though I have to save them at very high resolution since
they are a raster format and I will print them with a laser printer. The
only problem is that they are not scalable and that they take forever to
print to PDF files because of the high resulution required. During my test I
had to print a few pages at the time and them paste together the PDFs. It
works, but not the best solution. Thanks anyway.

 

[giovanni]

Unfortunately EPS AI version 8 works with AI previous version CS... I bet
there is somtheing in the export function that does not make it a real
version 8 eps...

 

[CyberTaz]

Have you considered ouputting your AI files as png - which PC Word will
readily display and should translate well to pdf for laser printing?

Will try to find other options if I can.

 

[CyberTaz]

OK - Try this: When you save a copy in eps, choose AI 8 format from the top
list & make sure to include th check for Thumbnails. That should give you
what you want without having to revert to ver. 3