Expert: Amy - 8/2/2006

Question
I have a package of .eps art from Graphics Products Corp.(1994) All the files are .sea and are on floppies. I managed to extract the files on an older mac and transfered them to my G4. But none of the versions of Illustrator I have will open them. I've tried 8.0 thru CS1. The error message I get is "The file is an unknown format and cannot be opened. I have also tried dragging and placing them into a new .AI file with no luck. I also tried opening them thru PhotoShop unsuccessfully. I even tried GraphicConverter. Since GPC is no longer in business, do you have any ideas how I might access these files. In the info window on the files under "KIND" it says: NPostscriptPboardType. This is a great collection of over 425 vector based art images that worked at one time for me. I'd like to be able to use the files again. Thanks for any suggestions.

Answer
Hi Sandie,

Did the clip art come with a viewer? If so, try copying and pasting from the viewer - sometimes vector artwork is preserved. Depends on how sophisticated the viewer is and if it's using previews or not.

Also, try doing a proper FILE > PLACE of the clip art instead of dragging it into your document.

I'm not 100% convinced that those are EPS files. You could try using an application such as http://www.frederikseiffert.de/filetype/ to change the filetype to EPSF and see what happens.

I'd like you to send me one - AmyLynPace@yahoo.com so I can take a look at it and tell you if it's really EPS format.

Other than that, I'm afraid it might be time to upgrade your clip art collection. I was just searching amazon for some and there are some pretty large collections for under $100.

Good luck with this!
Amy Pace