Export to Adobe Illustrator format

[qgib]

Author Name: Oskar Karlin (@oskarlin)
Original Redmine Issue: 13333

Redmine category:unknown

---

One big QGIS dream would be to have an Illustrator (AI) file export from QGIS (like the one in ArcGIS) where text stay as text and layers stays as layers. That would be so awesome. Also CMYK support would be superb!

[qgib]

Author Name: Richard Duivenvoorde (@rduivenvoorde)

---

AI files are (I think) closed files. I created SimpleSVG plugin some time ago to be able to export not too complex to svg for further editing in Inkscape. You could use that?

I keep the layers separated in (Inkscape) groups, and put the labels in a separate layer if I'm correct...

You could have a look into that one first.

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

---

• easy_fix was configured as 0

[qgib]

Author Name: Jürgen Fischer (@jef-n)

---

• category_id was configured as Unknown

[M-Rick]

I think a good beginning in this could be that QGIS preserves layers or layers view order when exporting in PDF. The exported PDF files are very messy. But I assume that QGIS relies on PDF export features embedded in QT.

[jgrocha]

I think a good beginning in this could be that QGIS preserves layers or layers view order when exporting in PDF. The exported PDF files are very messy. But I assume that QGIS relies on PDF export features embedded in QT.

@M-Rick QGIS uses GDAL to export to PDF. GDAL can use different backends to render the PDF.

[troopa81]

CMYK support has been added, and we use composition to preserve layers, so is there anything that need to be done regarding this issue?

[nyalldawson]

@troopa81
It's crazy, but illustrator doesn't respect pdf layers. It requires a different method of defining layers which isn't part of any PDF spec.

[troopa81]

It's crazy, but illustrator doesn't respect pdf layers. It requires a different method of defining layers which isn't part of any PDF spec.

That's crazy indeed but I can't say that I am completely surprised. Did you have a chance to take a look on a more recent specification document (PDF 1.6)?

[nyalldawson]

@troopa81

It's really silly. While illustrator saves/reads PDFs, it actually writes illustrator content to the PDF in a completely different way, and ONLY respects layers when reading if they were written in this extra "illustrator editing" content.

See https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/pdf-layers-visible-in-illustrator/m-p/13195522
https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/illustrator-flattens-existing-layers-when-opened-pdf/m-p/14846050
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/35852185-keep-layers-from-pdf-when-opening-the-file-in-illu

Totally insane 😱

[troopa81]

Totally insane 😱

Indeed! And so the only way to make it work would be to correctly write this layer order in Illustrator format in PDF (which is non standard obviously and subject to change).

Shall we close this issue as "Won't fix" ?

[nyalldawson]

I think it's worth leaving open. It's still an important request, and maybe a reverse engineered specification will be available one day.

[github-actions]

The QGIS project highly values your report and would love to see it addressed. However, this issue has been left in feedback mode for the last 14 days and is being automatically marked as "stale".
If you would like to continue with this issue, please provide any missing information or answer any open questions. If you could resolve the issue yourself meanwhile, please leave a note for future readers with the same problem and close the issue.
In case you should have any uncertainty, please leave a comment and we will be happy to help you proceed with this issue.
If there is no further activity on this issue, it will be closed in a week.