Can't save the illustration

[G***@adobeforums.com]

Illustrator CS3, winXP.

I have an illustrator file that opens OK, but if I make any changes to the file when I go to save it I get an error message "Can't save the illustration". I can copy accross all the objects and layers to a new file and save it, but then if I change that file I again can't save it.

I've also tried using the same file on a Vista64 machine and get the exact same error.

I then tried loading up the file into a spare PC with CS1 on it and it seemed to work fine.

Any ideas ?

Does the Adobe licence allow me to install the old CS1 version of Illustrator onto the same PC as the CS3 version I upgraded to ?

[H***@adobeforums.com]

I get the same message. I can't seem to save the file anyway I try. What the...? Any help!

[r***@adobeforums.com]

Use save as command then try to save it in lower version of illustrator, but expect to have a skight problem with your effects from the higher ver. of AI.

[H***@adobeforums.com]

That's a no-go. Tried and still gives the same error message. Dang!

Thanks for the help!

[D***@adobeforums.com]

What happens if you use "save as" to save to another file name with the same version?

It sounds either like:

a) the original file is corrupt in some way and thats causing the save issue.

b) the OS/application has protected the file in some way.

Regards
Paul

[S***@adobeforums.com]

I get the same "Can't save illustration" message. I can initally save a file, but any future "saves" results in the same thing. I've tried "Save as", and over-write the data, but I still get the message. The only thing that has worked for me is to open a new file, paste my graphics onto it, and "Save as" with the existing file name, to rewrite the data. If the file is corrupt, as suggested, then it's coming from CS3, as these have all been native, CS3 files.

[G***@adobeforums.com]

I have found the only way around the problem is to use Illustrator from CS1 on the same machine then I can do all the changes I want with no problems. But its a bit of a joke to pay for a new version of the software and have to use the old version on some files.

[D***@adobeforums.com]

I would start by removing everything Adobe and then re-installing just Illy CS3. See how that goes. If that doesn't work give me a few more details about your working enviroment, PC spec on a network etc.

Regards
Paul

[T***@adobeforums.com]

I have same error with Vista and CS3.

My spec is

Dell
DIM E520,Intel Pentium D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology(2.80GHz,800FSB)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro

[S***@adobeforums.com]

I don't know about CS3, but one mysterious save problem in CS and CS2 was cured by resetting all of the preferences folders. This involved changing the (hidden) "Adobe Illustrator CSX Settings" folder to a different name, or moving it to another location, while Illustrator was shut down. This is an easy and nondestructive fix because the folder and its contents are rebuilt on startup.

[S***@adobeforums.com]

I had the same problem, and discovered it was because one of my images went outside the area specified for the page size. If you zoom out and select all it will show you if there is anything off the page.

[a***@adobeforums.com]

have the same problem... "can't save the illustration" i've never had this problem in CS, CS2 both on mac and pc. and of course, i got rid of CS2 (gave it to a co-worker). i'm not looking a work-around, i need this fixed. any one know of a download to patch this up?

[5***@adobeforums.com]

Anyone have a fix for this? Same problem CS3 ONLY. Doesn't get fixed with the 13.0.1 update either. I ONLY get this problem trying to save as EPS. Doesn't matter what version of the save (Legacy or CS3). I can save AI files fine... just no EPS. Might have to go back to CS2... FTW.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

I have the same problem. On my new pc, I installed CS3 (Dutch), opened a CS1 Illustrator file in CS3, saved it under a new name, made all kind of changes and then I could not save it anymore. No reason explained, no alternatives (Save As), nothing, just no possibility to save. A week later I retried, but it happened again. Thanks a lot! :-(

Is anyone from Adobe reading this forum? How can this problem be known from June, without any answer? The only available upgrade is English, which can not be installed. Could Adobe PLEASE give a solution or at least a work-around?

Now the only thing I could do is (re)install CS1 next to CS3, and work in my old CS1. Why do they release Illustrator CS3 if you can not save files with it!??? Help!

[S***@adobeforums.com]

Walter:

I can, sort of, answer one of your questions. "Is anyone from Adobe reading this forum?"-- There are several Adobe employees who post here, but it is unclear to me to what extent their participation is officially sanctioned. For the most part this is a user's forum where we all try to help each other with program features and skills. I have some doubt whether your (and other's) posts here regarding problems with the program register at all with Adobe. Have you tried to obtain assistance from official Adobe Support? I am very curious about what is going on officially.

steve

[G***@adobeforums.com]

The only response I got from Adobe was to copy the entire drawing accross to a new file whilst maintaining the layers and then saving that instead. Whilst that allows you to get around the problem in an emergency, it doesn't exactly solve it as the next time you change it you'll have to create another new file. Meaning that you'll soon have a lot of copies of almost exactly the same file.

In my opinion the Adobe responses and patch cycle have gone downhill in the time I have been using their software(started with Pagemaker on runtime windows). Now they seem to just release the software and rarely fix it until the new version that they want you to buy comes out.

[S***@adobeforums.com]

Gordon:

Your experience is disappointing. Presumably not everybody is having problems with CS3, and it should not be too difficult for Adobe to compare good installations to ones with problems in order to find out what is going wrong. I have no idea about how difficult it would be to fix these problems.

My interest in this has to do with whether I will upgrade on an odd number version (purported to be problematical in the past). Hey Bert, how is your CS3 installation working?

steve

[unknown]

To Stephen/steve:
Thanks for your quick reply. No, I did not contact Adobe. Probably because I expected answer like the one Gordon got. In my search for an answer I came to this forum page, which carries the official Adobe logo and name, and it directly links from the official Adobe.com site, so I thought that it is an Adobe forum and that Adobe would read these messages. Apparently not (or not always), if I understand your reaction. Pity, since this problem is extremely serious, and a reason for me (and several others, from what I read on this forum) to go back to older versions of CS. By the way, I tried Gordon's method too, but as he said, it is an extremely uncomfortable workaround that you would only use as an alternative for losing hours of work. Definitely NOT a method to accept for regular work.

I wonder why and when this problem occurs exactly. More people most suffer from this, I guess, not only the ones who came to this forum? It happened to me immediately after the standard installation of CS3 on a brand new 'heavy' HP PC. It was the very first file that I tested, and a week later, at a second attempt, again with another file...

As long as this bug is not solved in a (Dutch!) upgrade, I will not use Illustrator CS3. Such a pity!! I visited an enthousiastic launch of CS3 in Amsterdam, but after buying it, I can't use it... :-(

P.S. (a bit off-topic): I also did some first tests with the new Flash CS3. Did you know that it crashes immediately at launch when there is a damaged project file somewhere in a subdirectory of your fla file? Weird... So you probably understand that my first impressions of CS3 are not very positive, alas. Today I re-installed my CS1. Fortunately CS1 and CS3 can be installed together.

[David Hieber]

Well, I have had this issue today, and occasionally before. I am using Illustrator for Mac, version 10.

I am not sure what causes this, but my co-worker and I spent thirty plus minutes trying to figure out how save (in EPS format) this job that I had successfully opened (from a PDF) and saved several times over, until I went to re-open it for some final changes. It seems we could save AI and PDF formats of the EXACT same file, just not as an EPS (I even tried to drag and drop to a new document like mentioned above, no luck!)

But then, I stumbled onto the idea that perhaps this has something to do with me trying to embed fonts into this EPS, so I unchecked the old "Embed fonts" and Presto! It saved fine.

This is very frustrating. I think the dialog box should be re-written to say something about "Not embedding fonts may help" instead of the usual "...reducing the size of the window..." and "...not enough memory..." B.S.

Sorry to barge in on this thread, but thought I would add a little note on what helped me to keep from throwing the computer across the room. Hopefully someone else will find that useful.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

David,

What did the non embedded font(s) look like when you opened the EPS afterwards?

[V***@adobeforums.com]

I too have the same problem.

When I save a document (300dpi, A4) the first time, I get a warning "The font xxx could not be embedded in the PDF document because of lisensing restictions. Stroked text will not be visible".

When I make changes to the document and try to save the second time, I get the "can't save the illustration" -error. So does this have something to do with the pdf/reader compability? Or the fonts. Anyways, I can't get over this, so I think I may have to change to my old Freehand or something. I've tried to copy all of the content to a new document but it won't work. Maybe it would work if I re-installed my windows and then run the cs package, but it's too much work (I already have too much work).

I'm using CS3 web premium package on win XP, with some previous Adobe installs.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Ville,

Where does the 300PPI (DPI is print speak) come in when you save to PDF?

The warning should have been: Save a copy with outlined type and save that to PDF, and then there should be no issue.

The Can't save illustration error normally appears when you try to print from Illy using a non PostScript printer (driver); use one if you have one.

[V***@adobeforums.com]

Ok, I'm pretty sure that in my case this problem has something to do with the fonts on my system.

I'm not really sure what is wrong with the font rights etc., but with some fonts, while saving, I get the error "The font xxx could not be embedded in the PDF document because of licensing restrictions. Stroked text will not be visible." After this, I can't save the document again (can't save the illustration), Save as, type -> create outlines, copy content to a new document, non of these work.

I can still make a new document with some fonts(?), and saving works fine, as long as I don't use these "bad fonts". Any knowledge about this kind of font issue, what I'm missing etc.?

-Ville

[m***@adobeforums.com]

Also there is a problem when insert/place a jpeg file. Ehwn you place and trying to edit jpeg file, one error occurs and a box appear regarding error report and illustrator get closed. No ay with that. I can not cope with this problem with jpeg files. Also i have same problem. When i open an exsisting file made with illustrator, if i change anything i can not sace or save as with different name in ai format nor save as with different kind of file. It is really disgusting thing. You work long hours and can not save your file.

[N***@adobeforums.com]

I've had this problem with more than one CS3 app and I've found on my system it is linked to the "printer not available" problem common across CS3 applications. When the default printer or the printer last printed to is not available (which can be for a variety of reasons--network, driver issue, or just not turned on). If I work with my printer on and ready, I have no more crashing problems while saving.

[N***@adobeforums.com]

See <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@@.3bc3dfb9>

[e***@adobeforums.com]

Hello people,

This problem is commonly caused by using files across networks or from removable storage. In my case, I was pasting image files directly into Illustrator from a PowerPoint presentation, which meant that these images do not actually exist as standalone files. When saving, due to the abject lack of URIs for these images, Illustrator cannot reference them, therefore cannot 'place' them, thus the save routine cannot complete. That's my theory, at least.

I now have to get all my artwork from the PP slides, paste into photoshop, save them as .jpgs (or whatever), and then when the placed images in my illustrator layers are selected, there's a link on the toolbar which allows you to relink the image source.

I'm hoping this will allow me to save, as I cannot close or crash illustrator till my work is safe.

[e***@adobeforums.com]

Well, it's not working. The files that have caused a problem do not save even when all placed artwork is permanently removed. There is a remnant of bad code which means that Illustrator is slow, the scale/rotate handles refuse to appear on bounding boxes, and no save. Unknown error.

I've tried making physical copies of the files, everything. Now it looks like I'm working three times less hard. Cheers Adobe, you've ruined my working week with your terrible file handling again. After Effects never gets these problems in my experience.

[e***@adobeforums.com]

I'm going to try installing CS2 and see what it makes of the same files, but I have little recourse except to export each layer as a separate file - perhaps PSD would have been wiser than flattened JPEGs - but I shouldn't have to be doing this!! I can't close this gippy program until my stuff is safe!!

[t***@gmail.com]

dear,

must be your work goes out of the artboard resize it and fix it in the artboard box, look at your sheet some where it appears a vertival rectangle shape resize your file to fix in this rectangle and then save.

[w***@gmail.com]

Hi, I had the same issue of "Can't Save the illustration" and made a video hope this can be helpful for you.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=eQ4CIUv395U

[c***@gmail.com]

I know this is a long time ago but anyone out there still experiencing this issue may wish to consider their Antivirus is blocking Illustrator from writing to their disk. It happened to me and allowing AI to write in the Antivirus preferences fixed the issue.

Post by G***@adobeforums.com
Illustrator CS3, winXP.
I have an illustrator file that opens OK, but if I make any changes to the file when I go to save it I get an error message "Can't save the illustration". I can copy accross all the objects and layers to a new file and save it, but then if I change that file I again can't save it.
I've also tried using the same file on a Vista64 machine and get the exact same error.
I then tried loading up the file into a spare PC with CS1 on it and it seemed to work fine.
Any ideas ?
Does the Adobe licence allow me to install the old CS1 version of Illustrator onto the same PC as the CS3 version I upgraded to ?