Layers are retained, and for example can be turned on and off from inside InDesign using the "Object Layer Options" function. Corel Draw, often used by small T-shirt and engraving shops, is a horrible exception, since it has its own ideas even about EPS and frequently messes up both import and export of that format.Īn AI file is readable across the Adobe Creative Suite applications, and can be placed directly in Flash, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro and Photoshop. Illustrator long ago became so dominant in the market that it was in the best interests of other graphics program makers to support the format, and most of them do.
Versions since AI9 replaced Postscript with a superset of PDF 1.5, which supports transparency (Postscript does not), and other capabilities such as 3D and color blends that Postscript knows nothing about. See also Mordy Golding's comments on this thread in the Adobe forums.ĮPS is Postscript based.
Bar code generators commonly output EPS, and it's an excellent format for that kind of thing, but that's not something you'd typically do in Illustrator, even if you're in the packaging industry.Ĭraig Kirkwood on Pixel Therapy posted a good summary of the situation here. EPS has almost no place in a modern graphics workflow and is best avoided except in very specialized cases.
It served the community well back in the day, but it's long been overtaken by PDF and AI. It's pretty safe to say that EPS, being Postscript based, is an obsolescent format just as Postscript is obsolescent. There's a great deal of opinion and frankly false information circulating on this topic. It can be embedded in a wider variety of non-Adobe documents and applications.
eps is that it is a more portable format. eps file loses its metadata you won't know if it has native Illustrator content or if it simply contains vector/bitmap data created in another application. ai format you know that the file was created in and saved from Illustrator and will be fully editable. eps is a more generic encapsulated format - many different applications can save.