Posted: 6/13/2005 3:53:11 PM EDT
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I've been provided the files for a beautifully done color flyer/small poster. Since I'm the closest thing to a computer guy this small group has, I was asked if I can make some changes. The two file formats on the media are PDF and AI suffixed files which I assume are Adobe Illustrator format. I don't own either Photoshop or Illustrator and am wondering if anyone has suggestions for software that would open these allowing me to make & save changes. To minimize my costs (a copy of PhotoShop is definitely out of the question - I've got guns to buy  ), I was wondering about some open source stuff like Gimp which I've heard great things about but never seen or used. Thanks in advance |
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is the pdf file the same as the ai version? im thinking the original art was created in ai then outputted to pdf. and i doubt the gimp would be of much help. i dont recal it supporting pdf or ai format. part of the problem yuo face is that illustrator uses vector graphics where nearly everything else is rasterized. ive not seen a free vector graphics editing program and illustrator is generally considered as one of the best. if the changes you want to make are very basic, you may be able to do them with adobe acrobat. not the acrobat reader though. acrobat allows you to edit and save pdf. and is not free. |
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PDF is no problem, you can get a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader that will open any .pdf file. Link added below. AI may be a problem without the software, but I'm sure someone here will know how to open the files. ADOBE ACROBAT 7.0 EDIT, I didn't know that you couldn't edit with the free version, but at least you could open the file. |
Yep, there's the finalfile.pdf which is about 23MB and a finalfile.ai which is about 2MB. There's also a fonts directory and an image directory with a lot of tiff files. I only kind of understand the vector vs raster thing but haven't seen anything open source that addressed it. I was hoping maybe to find something to read the PDF file and change that route perhaps writing out to a new format since I thought the PDF standard was fairly well published (e.g. PDF Creator). Didn't know if Gimp would do that or not. Someone had also suggested trying the new beta Microsoft product that's supposed to be the new photoshop competition. I've got time to contnue researching, buy if I get in a crunch, doing a trial version may be my best bet. |
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Gimp can open at least some PDF files; I had to do that last week. If you don't have a Linux box set up already, you can download Knoppix 3.7 EN; Gimp is available on the CD. You'll probably want to use a USB keychain drive to save the files; IM me if you need instructions. www.knoppix.net/ |