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While Adobe Illustrator is an excellent vector graphics editor used by many artists, it saves files in a proprietary format. The type of AI file that Adobe Illustrator uses to save projects generally requires Adobe Illustrator to open. Fortunately, there are many solutions.
In this article, we will show you the different methods to open an AI file without the use of Adobe Illustrator.
How to open AI files without Illustrator on PC
The most common platform you will find an AI file on is a PC, as graphic editors require a lot of processing power that mobile devices don’t have. Even if you don’t own Adobe Illustrator, there is a very easy way to open AI files. The steps are the following:
- Open the folder where the AI file is located and right click on the file.
- From the pop-up menu, choose Rename.
- Change the file extension from .ai to .pdf.
- A warning will appear asking you to confirm the extension change. Choose yes.
- Open the file using any PDF viewer.
Alternatively, if you have an Adobe program such as Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Photoshop installed, you can open AI files by doing the following:
- Open the folder where your AI file is located and then right click on it.
- From the pop-up menu, choose Open with.
- If you don’t see Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Photoshop listed, choose More Apps.
- Choose a program from the list. Note that you must uncheck the box to always use the program to open .ai files unless you want to associate the file with it. If you do this, all .ai files on your computer will automatically open using the program you choose.
- Click OK.
- The AI file should open using the selected program.
You can also assign a program to open all .ai files on your PC. This can be done by following this short guide:
- Open a folder containing any .ai file and right-click on it.
- From the pop-up menu, choose Properties.
- On the line that says Opens with, click Change.
- Choose a program from the list. If you can’t find the program you want, click More Apps.
- Once you have chosen a program, click OK.
- Click Apply.
- Now that this is set, any .ai file you open will automatically use the selected program.
It is important to remember that if you change the program associated with the .ai files, you will need to change it again if you decide to install Adobe Illustrator. If you don’t do this, Adobe Illustrator will not automatically open .ai files by default.
How to open AI files without Illustrator on an iPhone
You won’t find as many alternative methods to open .ai files on an iPhone since it was not designed for use on the platform. There is a mobile version of Adobe Illustrator, but the app often lags because it consumes a lot of processing power.
Since .ai files can be opened through PDF viewers, there are ways to work around this limitation even without having Illustrator installed. If your phone already has a PDF viewer, simply click on the .ai file and select your PDF viewer. Alternatively, you can download Adobe Creative Cloud for a program that handles Adobe files.
How to open AI files without Illustrator on an Android
The process of opening .ai files is much simpler on Android since it only requires two applications: Adobe Acrobat Reader and a mobile file explorer like the ES File Explorer. Follow the simple steps listed below:
- Use your file explorer to navigate to the location of the .ai file.
- Tap the file and when a menu appears, choose OTHER.
- Select Adobe Acrobat Reader from the list of applications.
- The file should now open.
How to open AI files without Illustrator on an iPad
Due to the similarities in operating systems between iPhone and iPad, the steps to open .ai files on an iPad are the same as on an iPhone. See the instructions in the iPad section to open your .ai file on your iPad.
Open AI files online
Another option for desktop users is to open .ai files online using AI viewers. Most of these programs are free and usually allow for additional basic editing. Below are some of these online sites and some quick instructions on how to use them:
AI Viewer
AI Viewer allows users to upload and view .ai files, resize images, and convert them to other file types. Editing options are limited to changing the file orientation, while uploads are limited to 20MB. You won’t be able to upload anything bigger. To use AI Viewer, do the following:
- Open the AI Viewer website. If you are on the home page, click the “Online AI Viewer” button at the top of the screen.
- Click “Select File.”
- Navigate to the folder containing your .ai file, then click Open.
- Your file should now upload.
- From here you can convert the AI file to another file type, such as .jpg, .png, .gif, .bmp, and .tiff. The options will be below the image.
FViewer
FViewer is a simple online AI file viewer. There’s little else in the way of editing options, although you can view these files in high definition mode. With no file size limit, FViewer may be the best option for larger files. To use FViewer, you will need:
- Open the FViewer website.
- Click “Select a local file,” then navigate to your .ai image or drag and drop the image into the box. Wait for the file to finish uploading.
- To view a high-definition version of the file you uploaded, return to the AI File Viewer tab.
- Find the Source Document tab, under options, click the drop-down arrow.
- Choose High Definition.
- On the side, click View.
- Your image should now display in high definition.
Expanded utility
AI files are very useful as they contain a lot of information for editing an image. The downside to this is its proprietary nature, which limits its use to Adobe Illustrator. Knowing how to open AI files without Illustrator expands the usefulness of these files.
Do you know any other ways to open AI files without relying on Adobe Illustrator? Feel free to share your tips in the comments section below.
