Convert .ai to .png?

Question

I just downloaded a free vector graphics set which contained UI elements and icons. The button graphics have some text on them. It were, however, .ai files which are not familiar to me.

Obviously, I did a search on Google. It turned out that:

• you can open .ai files with Adobe Reader. Great, I could take a screenshot from there, but I cannot remove the texts on the graphics as I'm using Reader...
• you can import it in GIMP but then the text and graphics are blent together which means I cannot remove the text either.

Is there a way to easily convert .ai to .png without too much clutter and so that the text isn't put on the images? I only need the background of the buttons, i.e. not the text like 'Test' which is just put on it to show how it looks with text.

Thanks.

Solution

You can use ai2svg.py to convert the ai file to svg, then open and edit the result in Inkscape.

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Inkscape might be able to open the files directly as well, but you might need additional software.

Comments

[HikeMike]

What operating system are you using?

[Trương Quang Thắng]

I installed Inkscape and it could import them directly, thanks!

[michael]

Inkscape import formats: wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/…