Expert: Amy - 1/16/2007

Question
I have been racking my brain over an Illustrator problem and was hoping you may have run in it or know the solution.  I use Illustrator to develop fax templates, I type up the template and save it as an “.eps” format.  In this template are tags that are read to pull in data from a database and print.  The tags start and end with #: tag :# not sure that is the problem.  Then I convert the file to “postscript, .ps” format.  What we have found is that when you open the “.PS” format of the template in Notepad the strings that were created for the tags are broken up.  Now the complicated part is its not consistent.  

Any Ideas?  

Answer
Hi Nancy.

Coincidence - I used to develop the same sort of forms at a former job. We were successful. I used $'s instead of #'s... that's the first difference that jumps out at me.

But I also have to wonder if the problem is either the method in which you are generating the PS files or the version of Illustrator you are using?

Are you printing to a .ps file using a generic printer driver?  Or are you saving as an EPS file? Or something else?

Adobe has added things to later versions of Illustrator that make the files a bit messy upon save. You can no longer just open an AI or EPS file with a text editor, as I'm sure you've figured out, because the file is saved with embedded AI and/or PDF data.

All that said, and if the $ switch isn't workable, I would like to help you troubleshoot this.  If you can send me a file, I can look at it and try to generate a pure PS file from it without broken strings. At home, I use Illustrator 9. At work, I have CS2, so either one would work.

If you could send me one saved down to legacy version 9, I could look at it sooner rather than later.

Send it to AmyLynPace@yahoo.com if you would like!

-Amy Pace