I asked a publisher for a logo that I could add to some work I am doing and he sent me an eps file. The file seems to have a backgroundand I cannot alter the original color. It came black and I want it dark green. I tried to out line the object (irregular shape) but it very time consuming and I wondered if there was something obious that I am missing????? Mike.
When you imported the EPS, you should have seen a screen similar to:
From your description, you probably selected the "Place" option. This will indeed give you an uneditable image, because it is intended to be used only for EPS files that are already in a finished state. It will also show only a placeholder preview -- which may be just the filename or a crude bit image, but will always show an opaque background even if the EPS file itself has no background. This is a limitation of the EPS file format -- the preview is normally a TIF image and cannot contain transparency. But in any case, unless you are printing to a postscript printer, the placed EPS file will be of little use to you.
So, import again and make sure you "import as editable". You may now find that your background is already transparent -- or, you will be able to go ahead and edit or delete the background.