Expert: Amy - 8/2/2006

Question
I have been trying to save an Illustrator CS2 mac file to email to a
pc user who has Illustrator 6. I have saved it back to 9.0 because he
has been able to open them from others, but those were also from
pc to pc. He is then going to use a vector based Gerber for cutting
letters. There are no save for pc choices, or pc preview that I can
find. Is there a workaround?  

Answer
Hi Marian,

He should be able to open a Legacy EPS file.

In CS2, use the File > Export > Legacy EPS function to export to the right version for the vinyl guy's set up.

I don't actually have CS2 so I can't look at what's available in that menu, but choose the lowest version you can and choose a tiff preview ( 8 Bit Color ) in the resulting dialog box. A PC will read it.

The preview isn't actually important in this case, since he has Illustrator, too.

I hope this helps. I have dealt with a lot of vinyl cutters and for some reason, many of them use really old versions of AI. Probably because it works for them!

Good luck!
Amy Pace