I have an illustration in adobe illustrator. The .ai file is about 23 MB. When I export it to .wmf or emf file to be imported into the Word, it becomes about 124 MB that is a lot. Importing such a big file into Word, makes it hard to even scrill up and down inside the document.
1. is there any better way to import vector illustrations in the word? I tried .eps as well, but the Word just shows eps file as an empty placeholder, why?



2. is there any way to force the Word to just show a preview of a special picture in Word and make it to show the best quality when it is printed to pdf? I do not want to use that option that shows all photos as placeholder.

BTW, the png and tiff produce raster and not vector pdfs and basically they are raster themselves.

thanks

hi box4it,

Whether an eps file displays anything other than an empty box in the document depends on how the eps was created. Because the eps is basically a bunch of embedded postscript code, Word requires it to include a low-res TIFF rendition of the content for display purposes (the high-res postscript is what gets printed).

For an A4/letter page, you'll never need more than about 22.5MB of raw RGB image data (3300*2200 pixels). And that's for a photo-quality full-colour print (which requires photo-quality paper). Such a file in high-res jpg format would typically be only 3-3.5MB. Even a compressed TIFF (lossless compression) would probably be no more than 8MB. For a 200dpi document resolution, the required raw file's dimensions would only be around 2400*1600 pixels, which would give file stats about 2/3 of the above.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for the reply.
So do you have any suggestion for how the eps should be created in Illustrator in order that Word be able to open it?

The problem with tiff files is that in the created pdf, when you zoom in, you will see the pixels of the photo, but when it is vector, the picture quality remains excellent no matter how deep you zoom.

Hi b0x4it,

Word can 'open' the eps whether or not it has a display image - it's just that all you'll see is an empty rectangle in the document if the eps doesn't include the display image. And if it does include one, it'll be a relatively low-res bitmap, which may not look all that great without zooming. If Illustrator can save the file as a PDF, you may be able to import that into Word.

I'd be surprised, though, if Illustrator couldn't save a vector emf/wmf somewhat smaller than 120+MB, though. In any event, graphics zooming ability is not ordinarily considered a word-processing function - you certainly won't be doing that with the printed document!

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you. The problem is that the imported eps is an empty box in Word and even in the printed pdf. So how can I make word to at least show it in the printed pdf?

Hi b0x4it,

The PDF I suggested creating was from Illustrator, not Word. Illustrator should be able to create a visible PDF of the file. You can then import that into Word.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Actually, these whole problems with importing vector illustration into Word is that because I can not get the PDF files imported into Word. Because I basically use latex and it is able to directly use with pdf files as images, I made all the images as pdf files and willing to import them all inside the word. But when I try same problem as eps file happens, empty box in word and created pdf. What am I doing wrong here?
I go insert->photo->pdf file, is this wrong?

Hi b0x4it,

You should be using Insert|Object > Create from file. That way, at least you'll end up with a low-res image to show in the Word document. AFAIK, though, it'll still print the hi-res contents (you might want to check this).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I tried this couple of time even in the printed version, it is just an icon with a name.
any solution is highly appreciated!

Hi b0x4it,

That suggests you inserted the object as an icon.

I tested the PDF insertion on my own machine and found that the printed output from Word is the same low-res version that displays on-screen. However, if you need a fully-re-scalable high-res version, it might not matter whether you insert the pdf as an icon or as a full-scale object. In either case, double-clicking on it makes it open up in Acrobat (or whatever pdf viewer you use) and gives you the hi-res version for zooming & printing.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

but I do not want it to have the ability to double click and open the file in acrobat. I just want it to show the high-res vector illustration beside test. Any solution?

Hi b0x4it,

Well, if even a photo-quality raster image isn't good enough, then you're going to have to figure out how to get Illustrator (or another app that can work with Illustrator files) to generate smaller vector graphic files in a format Word can work with. Since I've never used Illustrator, I can't help you on that front. Maybe there's an Illustrator forum somewhere where you could find that info.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you!