can gimp edit filename.eps or filename.ai files? - Graphics

Troy Piggins wrote:
> I have 2 files that are supposed to be my company's logo in a "raw" type
> format that is supposed to be editable. I don't know what software they
> were created with, but the extensions of the files were .eps and .ai
>
> I can't get gimp to edit them, but was wondering if there was some sort
> of extension/plugin etc that can. If not, does anyone know where I can
> go from here?
>
Look into 'imagemagick'. It says that 'eps' is Adobe and is silent on 'ai'.

"Dave Kelly" <daveekelly@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:sEaGf.5892$5E3.4064@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Troy Piggins wrote:
> > I have 2 files that are supposed to be my company's logo in a "raw" type
> > format that is supposed to be editable. I don't know what software they
> > were created with, but the extensions of the files were .eps and .ai
> >
> > I can't get gimp to edit them, but was wondering if there was some sort
> > of extension/plugin etc that can. If not, does anyone know where I can
> > go from here?
> >
> Look into 'imagemagick'. It says that 'eps' is Adobe and is silent on
'ai'.
AI (Adobe Illustrator) files are actually EPS files in disguise. If you use
Illustrator (even on multiple platforms) this is a safe choice, but the
portability to other software packages is iffy to poor. From
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ma...leformats.html

* Dave Kelly wrote:
> Troy Piggins wrote:
>> I have 2 files that are supposed to be my company's logo in a "raw" type
>> format that is supposed to be editable. I don't know what software they
>> were created with, but the extensions of the files were .eps and .ai
>>
>> I can't get gimp to edit them, but was wondering if there was some sort
>> of extension/plugin etc that can. If not, does anyone know where I can
>> go from here?
>>
> Look into 'imagemagick'. It says that 'eps' is Adobe and is silent on 'ai'.

$ identify filename1.ai filename2.eps
filename1.ai PDF 595x283 595x283+0+0 DirectClass 663kb 0.000u 0:01
filename2.eps[1] PS 231x102 231x102+0+0 DirectClass 97kb 0.000u 0:01

I could open the .ai file in acrobat, but not the eps one.
Gimp looks like it's supposed to be able to open .eps files, but I get
errors:

"Could not interpret 'filename2.eps'"

And I tried :

$ convert filename2.eps filename2.xcf

but that didn't work either.

Do I need more plugins? Gimp is the windows version by the way (on my
work desktop).

--
Troy Piggins
Ubuntu 5.10 pkgs : kernel 2.6.12-9-386, postfix 2.2.4, procmail 3.22
Compiled from src : slrn 0.9.8.1/rt (score_color patch), mutt 1.5.11i
vim 6.4

On 07 Feb 2006 22:37:04 GMT, Troy Piggins <usenet-0602@piggo.com> wrote:
>I have 2 files that are supposed to be my company's logo in a "raw" type
>format that is supposed to be editable. I don't know what software they
>were created with, but the extensions of the files were .eps and .ai

Adobe Illustrator by the looks of it. They are vector formats, composed
of shapes and lines, rather than blocks of pixels.

>I can't get gimp to edit them, but was wondering if there was some sort
>of extension/plugin etc that can. If not, does anyone know where I can
>go from here?

GIMP needs ghostscript (I think) to import EPS files (EPS is
Encapsulated PostScript), google for ghostscript, gimp and windows as
I'm not sure on it myself. At the very least you should be able to
export from something like ghostscript and/or ghostview to a bitmap
format.

But what I would suggest is that you edit them in a vector graphics
program. Depending upon which OS you use there should be a free app to
handle editing them (inkscape, skencil, xfig, tgif etc) and pstoedit
will allow you to convert EPS to a more easily editable format such as
SVG.

Frink

--
Doctor J. Frink : 'Rampant Ribald Ringtail'
See his mind here : http://www.cmp.liv.ac.uk/frink/
Annoy his mind here : pjf at cmp dot liv dot ack dot ook
"No sir, I didn't like it!" - Mr Horse

On 08 Feb 2006 01:22:40 GMT, Troy Piggins <usenet-0602@piggo.com> wrote:
>
>And I tried :
>
>$ convert filename2.eps filename2.xcf
>
>but that didn't work either.

Try

$ gs -r300 -sDEVICE=pngalpha -sOutputFile=test.png filename2.eps

assuming you have ghostscript installed, to produce a 300dpi PNG of the
EPS file. If you had gs I'd expect GIMP to load them directly though.

>Do I need more plugins? Gimp is the windows version by the way (on my
>work desktop).

The FAQ for the Windows installers has some info:

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/faq.html

Frink

--
Doctor J. Frink : 'Rampant Ribald Ringtail'
See his mind here : http://www.cmp.liv.ac.uk/frink/
Annoy his mind here : pjf at cmp dot liv dot ack dot ook
"No sir, I didn't like it!" - Mr Horse

* Doctor J. Frink wrote:
> On 07 Feb 2006 22:37:04 GMT, Troy Piggins <usenet-0602@piggo.com> wrote:
>>I have 2 files that are supposed to be my company's logo in a "raw" type
>>format that is supposed to be editable. I don't know what software they
>>were created with, but the extensions of the files were .eps and .ai
>
> Adobe Illustrator by the looks of it. They are vector formats, composed
> of shapes and lines, rather than blocks of pixels.
>
>>I can't get gimp to edit them, but was wondering if there was some sort
>>of extension/plugin etc that can. If not, does anyone know where I can
>>go from here?
>
> GIMP needs ghostscript (I think) to import EPS files (EPS is
> Encapsulated PostScript), google for ghostscript, gimp and windows as
> I'm not sure on it myself. At the very least you should be able to
> export from something like ghostscript and/or ghostview to a bitmap
> format.

Thanks for the info.

> But what I would suggest is that you edit them in a vector graphics
> program. Depending upon which OS you use there should be a free app to
> handle editing them (inkscape, skencil, xfig, tgif etc) and pstoedit
> will allow you to convert EPS to a more easily editable format such as
> SVG.

Am trying it on WinXP - looks like inkscape is the only one relevant
there. Got it (no idea how to use) and will tinker.

I actually got a demo copy of Adobe Illustrator so I can now open the
..ai file - tried to save it as .svg, but when I open the .svg file in
gimp I can't edit it in layers etc - it's flattened and not in a vector
format. Will keep trying.

--
Troy Piggins
Ubuntu 5.10 pkgs : kernel 2.6.12-9-386, postfix 2.2.4, procmail 3.22
Compiled from src : slrn 0.9.8.1/rt (score_color patch), mutt 1.5.11i
vim 6.4

Troy Piggins <usenet-0602@piggo.com> wrote:

> * Doctor J. Frink wrote:
>
>> But what I would suggest is that you edit them in a vector
>> graphics program. Depending upon which OS you use there should
>> be a free app to handle editing them (inkscape, skencil, xfig,
>> tgif etc) and pstoedit will allow you to convert EPS to a more
>> easily editable format such as SVG.
>
> Am trying it on WinXP - looks like inkscape is the only one
> relevant there. Got it (no idea how to use) and will tinker.

PSToEdit works on WinXP too and will convert the EPS to SVG, so
you can easily edit it Inkscape. The SVG export plugin for
PSToEdit is shareware and will slightly alter some colors in your
logo, but that's not too hard to overcome if it's a one-time job.

> I actually got a demo copy of Adobe Illustrator so I can now
> open the .ai file - tried to save it as .svg, but when I open
> the .svg file in gimp I can't edit it in layers etc - it's
> flattened and not in a vector format. Will keep trying.

Of course, because Gimp is a bitmap graphics program. By editing
the EPS with it, you'll lose the vector nature of the graphic,
implying loss of scalability and probably an increased filesize.

Really, use a vector graphics program like Inkscape for best
results!

Wald

On 08 Feb 2006 04:11:35 GMT, Troy Piggins wrote:
>
> I actually got a demo copy of Adobe Illustrator so I can now open the
> .ai file - tried to save it as .svg, but when I open the .svg file in
> gimp I can't edit it in layers etc - it's flattened and not in a vector
> format. Will keep trying.

Depending of your needs, use screnn capture whilst in Adobe Illustrator.
Zoom in, if you can, and capture enlarged images. That-a-way you may
have more 'head room' to mess around with the result in gimp, Picture
Window, or whatever.

Well, it's an idea....

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
*** Killfiling google posts: <http//jonz.net/ng.htm>

Doctor J. Frink wrote:
> On 08 Feb 2006 01:22:40 GMT, Troy Piggins <usenet-0602@piggo.com> wrote:
>> And I tried :
>>
>> $ convert filename2.eps filename2.xcf
>>
>> but that didn't work either.
>
> Try
>
> $ gs -r300 -sDEVICE=pngalpha -sOutputFile=test.png filename2.eps
>
> assuming you have ghostscript installed, to produce a 300dpi PNG of the
> EPS file. If you had gs I'd expect GIMP to load them directly though.
>
>> Do I need more plugins? Gimp is the windows version by the way (on my
>> work desktop).
>
> The FAQ for the Windows installers has some info:
>
> http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/faq.html
>
> Frink


This is my experience too. After installing ghostscript and setting the environment variable GS_PROG to point to gswin32.exe (GS_PROG=D:\Program Files\gs\gs8.51\bin\gswin32.exe) Gimp opens eps-files like a charm.

This is the note in the FAQ Doctor J. Frink refers to:

# I can't open PS and EPS files. Am I missing something?
# You need to install GhostScript to be able to read PostScript files with The Gimp. GhostScript can be downloaded from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/. After you install GhostScript, set the environment variable GS_PROG to the full path to gs.exe.

hth
PerL