Hello,
I just saw that some objects I have in some documents are exported into a PDF in a different way I expected. I attach a simple circle.
As a PDF opening it in Adobe Illustrator, it is shown as "open path".
As an AI opening it there it is shown as "closed path".
Is there any hint in this objects that shows it could be understood as open path by illustrator in a PDF?
(I send some files often as AI or PDF to other creators or customers using Illustrator, so it's not about that I should not use or open it in Illustrator...)
testcircle.zip
What PDF setting are you using to publish your PDF in Draw?
I'll download your file and take a look, however you seem to have an easy solution simply send your Illustrator clients AI files.
I have never had a closed path in Draw publish to a print based setting PDF in Draw show up as an open path in ANY RIP.
If I remember this correctly waaay back when CorelDRAW was introducing PDF it was intended as an export filter for output not for editing in graphic applications. The same approach was taken earlier with the EPS filter. In my experiance Corel has never wavered from that approach from either filter.
A little information on PDF export only, X3 does not support transparency in spot color, X4 does, complex fills and live transparency was not supported until 2019.
Illustrator does not support opening PDF ffiles from CorelDRAW that support any high end complex fills and transparency.
yes, I could send an AI, but sometimes it's also better to send a PDF. I tested the prepress and the editing PDF option, both in RGB, but should be the same in CMYK and other PDF export options.
When I open it in Illustrator I see the curve is open, also when I open it in Infinity designer.
When I open the PDF in CorelDraw again, it's closed :).
So my question is less about any workflow or CorelDraw functionality or bug, more about what could be special about the circle in the attachment so that it is exported as an open curve as PDF while many other shapes I create or use are just exported fine as closed path?
thank you very much for the file. The circle is an open path in Infinity Designer, Inkscape and Illustraror CS4. The node at the top is not a start/ending node but are actually two nodes over each other (in all three programs).
Yes, of course CorelDraw can not do anything, also because of specifications. But that a node becomes two nodes is not because of editing spefication probably.
but good to know that it's still the case in the new version of CorelDraw.
by the way also in Illustrator as mentioned there is some problem with this. also when I do vectorizing there I end with shapes with such open paths and double nodes. But I never had any problem from customers. So I guess this is just something found very often but not a problem for printing. Perhaps this is also the reason why I don't find any "open paths preflight" in Acrobat.
All my printing and by that, I mean ALL my printing from CorelDRAW V4 forward, (I loaded 3 but got 4 for free so never output anything form V3) was to high end digital front-end workflows. In the early days for about a year or so the RIP devices were predominantly Mac, and we had to remove the ^D characters from the postscript to make them run in the Mac devices. Lucky for me I had access to what they then called a service bureau who ran Windows based RIP's.
Luckily the Mac was not around very long in terms of being the dominant platform for RIP devices, so competition opened up and I then had access to Kodak approval proofing systems.
During V5 I worked with Corel, and it took to V8 to get the EPS export from Draw to support the RIP, imposition and Trapping solutions in the digital front-end systems of the day. That included spot color separations from EPS export. From then on quite frankly CorelDRAW has worked like a charm in professional output devices.
It became a game of leapfrog; Corel would come out with a feature than Adobe would come out with a feature, or Adobe would come out with a feature than Corel would follow up. It was very fast paced and then Adobe bought up everyone and things changed.
Not all for the good but the Corel pace slowed as the then CEO's legal issues mounted, and the market changed. Once X3 came along and Corel along with a team of testers got them to up their pro game in terms of color management and PDF support for spot colors with transparency with the release of X5 Draw output worked fine until 2017 they ran out of steam, and it took to 2019 to fix their PDF export.
Since then, Draws true PDF export as well and their postscript 3 PDF export has kept their output on top of the game. I wish they either take the font manager bull by the horns or just drop it.
In any case you'll have to find you way with exporting from Draw to Affinity Designer and Illustrator. The more complex the file the less likely it will work.
I went the other way as a capitalist pig, I simply dropped supporting Adobe users and started doing the creation and the installation.
thank you again, interesting to learn.
But after all it's not about Adobe but the exported PDF is also opened that way in Inkscape and Affinity. And it's a PDF with one = 1 object :). A circle. Perhaps the concept of start and end node is not supported by the PDF specification for all other software tools.
Yes I also never had any problems with printing and customers. I just saw this today and wondered.
Affinity and Inkscape built their products to be more Adobe compatible, Corel less so, I believe both programs made making Adobe Illustrator EPS and PDF a priority.
In fact, I have Affinity Photo 1.XX whatever and when I tested Photo V2.4 the fact that Affinity made V2.4 to be more like Adobe was the deal breaker for me in purchasing it. Of course, the lack of any real improvements in areas that I used or didn't have but wanted didn't help
But is "open path check" and "start/end node" something that PDF as a format understands? Is there any software that offers a preflight for the open paths? I did not find any. So perhaps if no editing is needed anymore and only printing (no cutting) this is perhaps ok after all.
I asked also in the Illustrator community and there I learned that it seems to happen as well when exporting from InDesign or Illustrator CC (when unchecking the Illustrator editing option, so deliver a final PDF). Then also the path is open the one node added.
But from CorelDraw I tried now all options, always it stays that way.
To solve this issue in CorelDraw it would be nice to change the editing PDF export option in that way that the path is not changed but still closed, just like the AI export option in CorelDraw. Actually the AI export option and the editing PDF export option should be similar that way.
Or is there any other hint how to maintain the closed paths of fillings in the PDF export in CorelDraw?
If you remember I mentioned Illustrator editing versions of PDF and EPS earlier.
I don't worry about the issue because I use PDF for output only.
If I send files to Illustrator I use the AI format because CorelDRAWdoes not support IllustratoreditingPDF and EPS. Better yet I avoid Adobe anything, Illustrator in particular.
BTW the AI file format I don't think has an output version only the native Illustrator editing.
Yes I will also deliver AI for more editing use.
For printing output of course PDF is needed mostly, and then it's now at least good to know that CorelDraw (as also Illustrator and InDesign) just opens all those paths and adds additional nodes :). So if a customer tells me he needs absolutely closed paths, then I can't export a PDF from CorelDraw. I could deliver a PDF from Illustrator though (with checkbox AI editing option), but then I just can deliver directly *.ai.
Still interesting that this was not known for CorelDraw and even not for the Adobe users as it seems (also did not find any discussion via Google).
Well, there are users and there are users, I've known about the AI EPS since the beginning of my Draw use in 1992 and the AI editing PDF since the very beginning of the release of PDF. I've lost count how many times I've posted it here on this forum.
I wrote an article back in 1995 or 96 it was titled PDF Minus See Me after Class, at that time Adobe was trying to really push everyone to use PDF and my article was a comparison between the Available EPS which was still level 2 and the current PDF. Quite frankly I hadn't moved over to PDF for output because I was doing things that couldn't be done in PDF. That was resolved about 6 years later and I've used PDF exclusively for all digital front end preflight and file processing for output.
In the waaaay back old days before the general release of EPS the RIP venders would provide a Plug-in EPS export for Quark Express users so you could output your files to their RIP as Quark didn't have their own export.
What amazes some older users is the lack of understanding of things, knowledge that have been lost in such a short time, mostly the understanding of, postscript, color management, file formats and their limitations. Try and discuss the limitations of PNG, TIF, EPS, PDF and other file formats and you may as well be pissing into a head wind.
I was using a print vender for my high-end 4+ 2 or more spot color work with dimensional foil embossing or debossing work. The general manager invited me to their in-house seminar on color management. I went and to the seminar, the first part was a tour, and passing through the pre-press area I ask their pre-press manager what the TIC was of the ink limit linearization dot gain curve was for high gloss text paper on their 40" Heidelberg press.
His eyes glazed over like the system processing indicator in Windows, and he said I press this button here! So, I ignored the seminar and ate about $50 worth of shrimp and left. I mean what an unskilled manager, I ask a question that was basic core technology, and he just didn't even understand the question.
They altered the work that they did and ended up being sold and doing medical packaging printing.
It's far simpler than your thinking, if you're sending a file for output to a postscript RIP level 2 or 3 use a flattened PDF, if you're sending to a true PDF RIP you can send live transparency.
If you're sending a file that needs to be edited and it's not too complicated send your client an AI file with fonts set to curves.
If you're sending a file that is complicated for editing or for placing in InDesign simply do the file in Illustrator.
The reason for this is that a user working with InDesign may place Illustrator elements near your CorelDRAW elements, worse yet under or on top of your CorelDRAW elements.
Adobe and Corel handle complex fills, blends and transparency in different ways. This in many instances will cause errors, at least today with the advanced RIP's they will be caught int he RIP preview if the output professional has a true PDF RIP.