AI - Adobe Illustrator Artwork

Format introduction:

Adobe Illustrator Artwork (AI) is a proprietary file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing single-page vector-based drawings in either the EPS or PDF formats. The .ai filename extension is used by Adobe Illustrator. The AI file format was originally a native format called PGF. PDF compatibility is achieved by embedding a complete copy of the PGF data within the saved PDF format file.

Technical details:

The same "dual path" approach as for PGF is used when saving EPS-compatible files in recent versions of Illustrator. Early versions of the AI file format are true EPS files with a restricted, compact syntax, with additional semantics represented by Illustrator-specific DSC comments that conform to DSC's Open Structuring Conventions.

 

File extension	.ai
MIME	application/post-script
Developed by	Adobe Systems
Type of format	Vector image format
Associated programs	Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, CorelDRAW, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Ghostscript, Inkscape.
Sample file	sample.ai
Wiki	AI on Wikipedia