This content has been marked as final.
Show 5 replies
-
1. Re: Why are Illustrator thumbs so terrible?
Ann Shelbourne Dec 4, 2008 1:56 PM (in response to Evil Lair)Illustrator .ai, .pdf or .eps files?
All but old EPS files display smoothly in Bridge CS4 for me.
VERY old EPS files (possibly Illy v.8 ) appear bit-mapped (jagged) but are legible. -
2. Re: Why are Illustrator thumbs so terrible?
Evil Lair Dec 5, 2008 10:39 AM (in response to Evil Lair)They are all .ai files, although I occasionally run into .eps files.
I've done some experimenting saving as different versions, with a 8.5x11 document with one object inside the document bounds and one outside.
Using CS4 Bridge here are the thumbnails of everything it made:
http://homepage.mac.com/macrat/.Pictures/bridgetest/BRgroup.jpg
As you can see version 8 files and CS3 eps show both elements, but the thumbnails are bitmapped. Newer Illustrator files crop to the document bounds including the pdf, but render smoothly. I also made a CS3 file with the document size cropped down close to the elements, which is what I have been forced to do for all my clipart.
This shows the maximum size preview of the Illustrator 8 file:
http://homepage.mac.com/macrat/.Pictures/bridgetest/BRthumb1.jpg
...and the CS3 cropped version also at maximum size:
http://homepage.mac.com/macrat/.Pictures/bridgetest/BRthumb2.jpg
And finally I present the same files in File Browser. Granted they are a bit bitmapped but I can make the preview as big as I want at least, and they all have the same quality:
http://homepage.mac.com/macrat/.Pictures/bridgetest/FBgroup.jpg -
3. Re: Why are Illustrator thumbs so terrible?
Ann Shelbourne Dec 5, 2008 11:55 AM (in response to Evil Lair)As it's only the old v.8 files that are a problem, the answer would seem to be to re-open, and then re-save them, in your current version of Illustrator? -
4. Re: Why are Illustrator thumbs so terrible?
Evil Lair Dec 5, 2008 2:05 PM (in response to Evil Lair)That does help and is what I have started doing, but it also means I have to custom size each document to the graphics in order to have a thumbnail image that is usable. Before I could have a tiny graphic and just drop it in any old size document and still get a nice big preview of the graphic since File Browser doesn't care about the document bounds. If the document is a standard letter or something and the graphic is very small, Bridge goes by the document bounds and not the content of the file so you end up with a lot of white space with a small dot of a graphic in it.
Also Bridge doesn't make .ai thumbs as big as raster images, they seem to be based on some arbitrary percentage of the document size. Unless I make all my vector art tabloid size the thumbs are much smaller than my monitor. -
5. Re: Why are Illustrator thumbs so terrible?
Ramón G Castañeda Dec 5, 2008 2:36 PM (in response to Evil Lair)Bridge evolved from Photoshop's File Browser, which you mention yourself. It's no wonder that the Illustrator programming team hasn't caught up yet. Whether or not they ever will is an open question.
You'd think that the different teams talk to each other during their coffee breaks at least, but not only are they not in the same building, they're even in different cities of different states.


