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Clipping mask in Illustrator 7 not stable!
This is so weird! I made some clipping masks in 13 really large files. They are simple: a photograph with a circle shape – select both circle and photo, hit clipping mask, got the photo to be round, added an outline saved the file as an ai file. It’s really large – about 488MG due to size of art and photos. I exported a jpg for proofing and everything seemed fine. I opened up the files again and all 13 identical files (except for the clipped photos) has the photo unclipped! Why? I have the jpg to prove I did it right. The ai file saved with the clipped file placed and looking just fine. I open each one up and they all look like the unclipped photo with a circle imposed on it! I can redo this but I have to upload to the vendor tonight and am worried they won’t get them right. Does anyone know why Illustrator 7 would do this and how to make it stay clipped?
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2 Replies
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Could be the file size. AI7 is pretty dated now, too. Can you just trim the photos in photoshop to just the size you need, then do the clipping mask in AI? There’s no point in wasting all that space if it’s just getting cut out anyway. Leave an extra 1/2 inch or so around the image for wiggle room. Make a new image for each clip, too. Link the files, don’t embed, but remember to include them in the same folder so the printers can print them. May do the layout in Indesign to make it all look good, too.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
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Thank you for your advice! I will try that next time. Meantime, out of desperation I kept trying things and found that if I selected the photo after it was made into a clipping mask and then clicked on “flatten transparency” it seemed to make it stable. At least when I ope the files up again they are still clipped. What a mess! It turned out that it was a problem on just several of the 13 files. Why some would be fine and some wouldn’t is beyond me. I just got this creative cloud version about six months ago and I guess I should upgrade already.
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