Expert: Amy - 10/14/2006

Question
Hello Amy,

When I open an illustation, made and saved in Illustrator CS2, I regularly get the message:

Can't open the illustration.    
ID = -50                     

If I press the 'OK' button in the message box It opens a very corrupted illustration file. Do you have any idea what the problem might be and if (and how) it can be helped or avoided ?

With much appreciation, Michael  

Answer
Hi Michael,

I have to tell you right off the bat that there may not be a solution for this particular file... or pieces of it.

The problem may be any number of things... could be a corrupt font or a bad placed image or a bad/funky gradient within the file.

The best thing to try is placing the file into a new Illustrator document using the place command.

But having seen a lot of people with similar file problems, I can tell you that there never seems to be one fix for all cases. You have to do some troubleshooting. Adobe has written a whole big list of things to try with problem files... please look at it and maybe one of these suggestions will help you. Here's the link to the tech doc:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/320318.html

I really hope something in there works for you!
Good luck
Amy