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So, I'm using adobe illustrator for creating vectorial figures, mainly for graphs.

In illustrator, creating graphs is not so well implemented, so I'm using another tool to make them (e.g. R, xmgrace, pyx, mathematica), and them export as PDF and "place" them in the illustrator, for further modifications and adjustments easier to to in illustrator.

There are two "types" of placing: either a link to the original pdf, or embed the pdf in the illustrator, converting its data to illustrator's "notation".

When embedding, it is frequent that the illustrator does not have the fonts of the PDF (e.g. LaTeX symbols), and thus screws all the symbols/text of the original pdf during embedding.

I currently know one way of "solving" this for images, as pointed out here: by converting the pdf to a postscript without fonts, using (on Mac):

gs -sDEVICE=pswrite -dNOCACHE -sOutputFile=nofont-Myfile.ps -q -dbatch -dNOPAUSE Myfile.pdf -c quit

For simple formulas, this seems to be equivalent to export a formula from LaTeXit as "PDF w.o.f." (without font) instead of just PDF (this utility appears during Drag of the formula)

However, for images, this requires one step on the process (the terminal command) just to create a new file, for them passing from pdf to Illustrator.

Does anyone knows a better solution than this one?

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  • If you're doing graphs in combination with LaTeX, it might be very useful to switch to the Tikz/PGFplots language instead of individually editing your graphs in Illustrator. In the end this will make it easier to output graphs in a certain style, retaining all LaTeX symbols and the image remains scalable.
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Mar 5, 2014 at 11:30
  • @BartArondson, I understand that, but I don't want to drop Illustrator. IMHO it is still superior to Tikz.
    – Jorge Leitao
    Mar 5, 2014 at 12:47

2 Answers 2

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When embedding, it is frequent that the illustrator does not have the fonts of the PDF (e.g. LaTeX symbols), and thus screws all the symbols/text of the original pdf during embedding.

This seems to be your main problem, correct?

Instead of opening the PDF file in Illustrator, place the PDF file. While the PDF you placed is still selected, go to:

Object > Flatten Transparency > CLICK "Convert all text to outlines"

This will take care of any font issues you have with your pdf's and allow you to continue to edit in Illustrator.

screenshot

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Create the .pdfs so that they contain the fonts in question, then they can be placed into AI w/ a link.

One way to do this is to export them to .eps, then distill them to .pdf on machine w/ all the fonts.

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  • Sorry, but in which way your solution is better than what I presented in the problem?
    – Jorge Leitao
    Jul 8, 2013 at 6:35
  • 2
    Ways: If you do it at the source, where the files are being created it's a single configuration change. Type isn't converted to paths, so hinting is retained. Text remains text, so can be more easily edited. Text remains text, so can be identified for especial handling when trapping, &c.
    – WillAdams
    Jul 8, 2013 at 12:31

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