Big 'X' when opening EPS file

[tatedder]

Hello everyone,

I am fairly new to the FreeHand world as one would probably assume. I am
trying to open an EPS file with FH11 (MX) and I get nothing but a big 'X' on
the page with a white background. Could anyone assist me in making this image
actually show up? Also, I read on another post the FH cannot interpret EPS
files, only show them. Does that mean that FH cannot edit EPS files too?

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

[Kayak_Girl]

I too am having the same problem, though it's an intermittent one. Sometimes I
can copy and paste with luck, other times it doesn't work *at all*. It doesn't
make a difference if I copy and paste into Photoshop (7), or open my editable
Freehand (MX) eps in Photoshop: they both don't show my image, though the "X"
has the correct image dimensions. I've tried several variations of the Copy
Special, to no avail.

It's strange, it used to work and now it doesn't.... what gives?

[Filipe Dinis]

I really don't know the right way, but is for situations like this that i have
Adobe Illustrator installed. Just open the EPS from Illustratoradn save as .AI
(version 7)
But i'm sure that is another way.

[James E. Talmage]

EPS=Encapsulated PostScript. The operative word is "Encapsulated." FH can
place EPS images and send them to a printer, but because it is not a
full-blown PostScript interpreter, it cannot always un-encapsulate them. If
the artwork originated in AI, save it in a legacy .ai format (8 or earlier,
I think). FH can open those, converting their elements to native FH objects.

JET

[matz]

Correct!
FreeHand only opens EPS files, if a native FreeHand document was
embedded before.
To open and edit a "plain" EPS file, you should use Illustrator,
CorelDraw or a special software RIP like Enfocus Tailor, GhostScript
(=free) or TransverterPro.
Another workaround: Try to generate a PDF with Acrobat Distiller, then
open the PDF in FreeHand.

If the EPS file only contains bitmap data (originally a TIFF with EPS
header and custom compression), there is no chance to edit vector
elements at all.

;-) matthias

[David Plank]

There are several things to be aware of. Freehand can save an
editable eps. It will make the file larger because all the code
that FH needs to edit the art is included with the Postscript code.

EPS files have a separate preview image. If you get the big X
that means that the preview image is not compatible with your
platform. For instance, the eps was made with a PC and you have a
Mac computer. Illustrator gives you an option of what kind of
preview image to put with the eps. Even with the big x, the file
will print to a Postscript printer.

dp

Kayak_Girl wrote:

> I too am having the same problem, though it's an intermittent one. Sometimes I
> can copy and paste with luck, other times it doesn't work *at all*. It doesn't
> make a difference if I copy and paste into Photoshop (7), or open my editable
> Freehand (MX) eps in Photoshop: they both don't show my image, though the "X"
> has the correct image dimensions. I've tried several variations of the Copy
> Special, to no avail.
>
> It's strange, it used to work and now it doesn't.... what gives?
>

[Kayak_Girl]

The FH eps file is one that I created from scratch on my Mac; it hasn't come
from a PC. It's just a straight vector file, no tifs, etc. Unfortunately I
don't have access to Illustrator to save the preview like you suggested. If I
had Illustrator there would be no problem at all! :-/

I thought that by opening a FH eps file in Photoshop, PS parses and rasterizes
the eps. This is what I've experienced in the past.

What I don't understand is why sometimes I don't have any problems at all
copying and pasting and then two minutes later, it stops working. I even tried
a simple, uncomplicated document with two squares and that doesn't work half
the time either.

So if I don't have Illustrator, is there another way that I can go between FH
and PS? I suppose I could export as Photoshop 5....

Thanks for your help.