MicrostockGroup

Illustrators Corner - Microstock Illustrators Forum => Illustration - General => Topic started by: cluckcluck on October 14, 2008, 04:26

Title: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: cluckcluck on October 14, 2008, 04:26
Hi,

I just had a batch of illustrations rejected at Shutterstock for the following reason.

"No Bitmaps--Bitmap images are not permitted--please see the forum"

I couldn't find any obvious answers at the Shutterstock forum so I came here.

I had saved them as eps files (from Inkscape) and they had colour gradients in them (but NO opacity or blurs). However I have had quite a few batches with similar effects accepted without any problems at Shutterstock and Dreamstime.

Anyone got any ideas.

Thanx
Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: designalldone on October 14, 2008, 04:38
Did you save them as Illustrator 8.0 compatible files (EPS 3.0)

Unfortunately I've never used Inkscape, so can't do any testing for you - I'm guessing there's an element or effect in your illustrations that are displaying incorrectly in Illustrator.
Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: cluckcluck on October 14, 2008, 05:03
Inkscape only has one eps export setting, they render to JPEG fine but I don't have illustrator to check if they are edittable.

Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: epantha on October 14, 2008, 07:40
A bitmap is a non-editable set of bits that represent a graphic image, When you exported the image out of your program maybe some of the vector elements were rasterized? The best thing would be to check your exported file in Illustrator before you upload it as a vector file.
Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: stormchaser on October 14, 2008, 11:33
Any gradients generated in Stinkscape are converted to bitmaps when they are converted to EPS. Get Illustrator, or use only plain paths and fills. No other way around it. 

The bitmap elements generated by gradients are buried down in the layer hierarchy when opened in Illustrator, which means that if you say you had similars approved, the reviewer did not break the file down far enough. You got lucky on those.
Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: cluckcluck on October 15, 2008, 03:42
Thanks stormchaser for answering my question. I guess I have to start saving my pennies for illustrator or avoiding gradients.
Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: stormchaser on October 15, 2008, 10:02
Check eBay and see if you can get a copy of Illustrator 10. It's the most stable version, and it's really all you need for stock.

When some of the stockers first started using Ink, files were passing. But then I think a few of the reviewers started discovering where the bitmapped gradients were hidden, and a large number of files started failing. Some reviewers I think now check the EPS file in Notepad, and look at the program generation header. If they see ".046" in the version, they will automatically fail the file. Thus the ambiguity in many of the SS forum threads discussing Inkscape.
Title: Re: Shutterstock rejection no bitmaps
Post by: julo on November 09, 2008, 15:05
I have the same problem with stockxpert. Is any freeware program which can transform SVG files (from Inkscape) to EPS file without bitmaps from gradients?