Here’s one of the most requested features for InDesign! InDesign now lets you import the SVG and SVGZ format files in InDesign and InCopy documents. Earlier, SVGs from CC libraries were imported as PNGs in InDesign. Place the SVG file To place the SVG file saved on your computer, choose File > Place. To place the SVG available in your CC Libraries, choose File > Place from CC Libraries. Check this help article for complete details about this feature. Feedback and questions: Reply to this post to share your feedback on this feature, and any questions you have around using it. Our team of experts here will do their best to assist you.

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Question

Now import SVG in InDesign !

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
November 5, 2019
4 replies
4768 views

Here’s one of the most requested features for InDesign!

InDesign now lets you import the SVG and SVGZ format files in InDesign and InCopy documents. Earlier, SVGs from CC libraries were imported as PNGs in InDesign.

Place the SVG file

To place the SVG file saved on your computer, choose File > Place.
To place the SVG available in your CC Libraries, choose File > Place from CC Libraries.

Check this help article for complete details about this feature.

Feedback and questions:

Reply to this post to share your feedback on this feature, and any questions you have around using it. Our team of experts here will do their best to assist you.

How to

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Thanks to Daniel who posted in a thread today the issue I have with viewBox is resolved.

Or at least there is a workaround. The thing I did by editing the SVG code and adding width and height before viewBox is done when you export to SVG with Illustrator and option "Responsive" is unchecked ( which in not the default ) :

Important note:

When you come accross an SVG from Illustrator where width and height before viewBox is missing, do not open the SVG in Illustrator and save again. SVG is an endformat! In this case edit the SVG file with your text editor.

Only if you still have the Adobe Illustrator file, open the AI file and save with option "Responsive" unchecked.

More details here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/help-with-placing-svg-exported-from-illustrator/m-p/12090681#M432098

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

hansa24217613

Participant

Good to hear that svg files can be placed in Indesign. Though, a bit dissapointed as it seems they will loose interactivity when exported to pdf. I use SolidWorks Composer to create svg:s with hotspots and BOMs but it seems this doesn't work when exported to pdf. Exporting to html seem to work but pdf would be better. Any ideas?

Jongware

Community Expert

Because the PDF format does not support everything that the SVG format supports.

Adobe can add all kinds of functionality to InDesign (multiplayer options! Facebook farms! Tetris!) but that does not automatically mean it will work the same way "in a PDF" (quoted, because even the mere classification "this will work in a PDF" needs additional footnotes detailing which features will work on what OS and in what local PDF viewer).

BobLevine

Community Expert

It is amazing how many people think that Adobe controls the PDF format and can magically make it do whatever they want.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Thank you for asking, Om.

Think, I discovered a bug when working with SVG files saved from Adobe Illustrator.

Also reported this at Prerelease some months ago.

Illustrator is using viewBox entries. But InDesign will ignore them:

viewBox="0 0 100 100"

Instead it seems that the placing mechanism calculates the size of all elements. And here comes the bug:

And it adds always 0.5 Pt on every edge of the placed contents.

One can correct that, but this means that every SVG file from Adobe Illustrator has to be edited before being placed.

Just a sample code of an SVG below so everyone can test this.

Not edited SVG code from Adobe Illustrator:

<svg id="Ebene_1" data-name="Ebene 1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 100 100"><defs><style>.cls-1{fill:#e5007d;}.cls-2{fill:#ffed00;}</style></defs><title>284x284pt-Rectangle-Artboard-100x100pt</title><rect class="cls-1" x="-92" y="-92" width="284" height="284"/><rect class="cls-2" width="100" height="100"/></svg>

Edited SVG code to make the initial viewBox values work as expected:

<svg id="Ebene_1" data-name="Ebene 1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="100" height="100"><defs><style>.cls-1{fill:#e5007d;}.cls-2{fill:#ffed00;}</style></defs><title>284x284pt-Rectangle-Artboard-100x100pt</title><rect class="cls-1" x="-92" y="-92" width="284" height="284"/><rect class="cls-2" width="100" height="100"/></svg>

Hope, this issue will be resolved in the next bugfix round for InDesign.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Om Nath JhaAuthor

Legend

Thanks for sharing the detailed information Uwe. I'll make sure it reaches to the team. I'll keep you posted about the update.

-Om

Sandee Cohen

Legend

Om,

I just discovered that in addition to adding extra space to SVG files, InDesign is also cutting off parts of the art with an incorrect Crop Box. I have seen this with files from The Noun Project. I described the effect in this post:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/svg-imported-with-wrong-content-frame/m-p/10779910#M166731

A

ABlecher

Participant

I was very excited about this but it doesn't work for me. I have the latest version of InDesign and when I choose File, Place all I get is a pixeled mess. Any suggestions?

Jongware

Community Expert

Perhaps you forgot to enable "High Quality Display".

It's still a graphic file, and like all other formats, having huge images display in their original quality ~~may~~ will slow down your system.

A

ABlecher

Participant

You were correct. I had forgotten to view as high quality display. However, I didn't immediately think of this as I was under the impression that the placed SVG files would be editable. Can anyone confirm if SVG files placed in InDesign are intended to be editable or not? If not, this function is of no help to me as I work a lot with icons and need to edit the colour. My initial excitement was thinking I could do everything in InDesign and leave out the Illustrator part.

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