Placing Adobe Illustrator AI files

[AdobeAce]

Hi All,

A quirky little thing I came across in Illustrator CS2 –

Used to be in the good old days (CS and earlier), any object you created, anywhere in your work area (all 227" X 227") in Illustrator, would import into InDesign even if it was not on the Artboard (page). The only purpose of the Page was for printing directly from the file to a desktop printer or output device.

With Illustraror CS2, if an object goes off the edge of the Artboard it gets cropped off when you place it in InDesign CS2 (or CS). If your design is too big for the Illustrator page, you have to make the page bigger to avoid objects getting cropped when you Place in InDesign.

If you save your Illustrator file as an EPS, the problem does NOT exist. But what good is that? The AI Native format is so much more compatible with InDesign.

Does anyone have a clue why Adobe did this?

[GuyB]

Hi AdobeAce,

I don't know why what you describe happens in CS2. But I heard of a turnaround for someone who wanted to include the bleed in his AI file and could'nt (because of what you said). Save as PDF and in the dialog, include the "bleed" (in your case, the space sufficient to include all your objects). Place in ID.

Note that I did'nt try it, I'm still with CS.

[AdobeAce]

Hi GuyB ,

I ended up just making the pages bigger in Illustrator to include ALL of my design. The page size in Illustrator was of no importance to me. I just wanted to do the cropping in InDesign.

Thanks for the PDF idea. I'll give that a try as well.

[DCurry]

Hi, Ace,

I believe it comes down to the fact that an .AI file is in reality a PDF. When CS2 came out, I guess Adobe decided to change either how ID reads the .AI files, or how Illy actually writes them so that it uses the document setup info to define the visible artwork, rather than using the actual artwork itself like with EPS and older .AI files.

What I find most frustrating about this approach is that older .AI files that I may have created will need to be fixed before I can use them in future ID CS2 layouts. I hope Adobe fixes this in the future. Better yet, now!

[AdobeAce]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the info.

Nice to see some of the old MacDesign forum people have come over to the Layers forum.

Ace

[DCurry]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the info.

Nice to see some of the old MacDesign forum people have come over to the Layers forum.

Ace

Yeah, but I still miss the PC-bashing irreverence of Mac Design.

[AdobeAce]

Hi Dan,

Me too!

Having trained a few groups on PC now, I've seen first hand the kind of nonsence that happens with graphics on a PC.

Ace

[GuyB]

Well..... let's start it again. Mmmmmm..... (looking around, nobody in view...) I HATE PCs !!
Wouuuu... feels good !!

[AdobeAce]

Hi GuyB,

:D

Head for cover!

Ace

[Creativepaintballer]

:D PC's are not all that bad it still makes for a great paper weight. My papers don't blow away anymore when I turn on the fan... and that something you can't live with out in the texas heat.

[jhereford]

Microsoft's new OS Vista, stands for:
Virus, Infections, Spy-ware, Trojans and Ad-ware

[GuyB]

Creativepaintballer,

I was thinking that you could also pull the case off of your PC and use the fan but then again, I realised that you need something more reliable in the heat of Texas ! :D

[Creativepaintballer]

GUYB thats very true... i took the case off my mac and turned the fans towards me.... Very reliable. its never been colder in texas. :D