Expert: Amy - 10/25/2007

Question
I received an illustrator file that has a link to an EPS file.  When I open this in CS3, the linked file name appears in the Links Panel, but the link does not visually appear on screen.  I can go to the EPS file and open it with CS3 and it opens and looks fine.  While I was messing around with this trying to figure it out, I opened the EPS file and cut the image to the clipboard, saved the file, opened it backup and pasted the image back to the file.   After doing this, the file size went from 16MB to 223 MB.  Now when I open the original Illustrator file, the link does appear, but it appears to be much lower resolution as a link within the Illustrator file as opposed to when I open the EPS file directly.  Any idea what is going on here?

Answer
Hi James.

When you copied it to the clipboard and pasted it, you may have reduced the resolution... or it's possible that the file is only being displayed using its 8-bit preview, since it's an EPS.

Click on the file and look at its characteristics in the Document Info Window (flyout menu > Embedded Images). This ought to tell you the resolution of the image. You want 300 dpi for color images, as you probably know. A small variance is fine.

Upon not seeing the file, what I would have done is to embed the file or RE-place the file if you prefer the image to be linked.

To embed. Open the original file. Click on the image. Click the EMBED button from the Control Panel (under the top menu). Since it's EPS it may appear as an 8-bit preview, which will most certainly appear grainy.

To re-link, click on the image. Choose File > Place and locate the correct image. Check both the LINK and REPLACE options. Same deal applies with the graininess.

Sorry this answer is so choppy - gotta make dinner!
Amy Pace