Illustrator 2025 (29.8.7) flatten layers of PDF saved in version 2026 (30.5.1)
Let's say you have Illustrator 2026 (30.5.1) and you save an artwork as PDF preserving editing capabilities, the artwork has layers, some of them are hidden.
When you reopen the artwork in the same Illustrator version all layers are in place and you can continue to edit the artwork.
In the save as Ai dialog it appears that the Illustrator file format is the same from 2020, but if you open the same PDF with Illustrator 2025 (29.8.7) or Illustrator 2024 (28.7.10) all layers content collapse to a single layer (Layer 1) and the objects inside hidden layers are lost.
Using Ai as file format you can open the artwork independently in version 2026, 2025, 2024 with the same results, all the original layers in place.
I suppose that the Ai version inside a PDF with editing capabilities is not the same as Ai with PDF compatibility.
Please Adobe fix this.
Claudio Marconato
shared this idea
-
Ton commented
Yes, it should open the .ai part of the file instead of the .PDF
It has nothing to do with incompatible features.
I opened an Illustrator file from 2022 in 2026 and saved as PDF. It opens fine in 2026, but opens a pdf version with some outlined text in 2025.
I can correctly open a pdf file (with editing checked) from 2025 in 2026, but not in 2023.
But I can open the same .ai file saved in 2025 and 2026 -
Monika Gause
commented
Seeing the same thing happening in PDFs saved from version 2024 and 2025. I assume that it's meant to be that way. But, yes, this is not how you would expect it to work.