Skip to main content
S A M !
S A M !
Participant
February 26, 2016
Answered

How to send an illustrator file to ipad pro adobe draw?

  • February 26, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 34527 views

Hi, i want to continue an illustrator drawing in the app Adobe Draw, but i dont know how to send it to the iPad, can someone please help me?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Theresa J

    CC Libraries are used to share assets between desktop apps and mobile apps, BUT you can only go from Draw on the iPad to Illustrator on a computer. It's not possible to send a file from Illustrator to Adobe Draw.

    3 replies

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    February 2, 2019

    One year later nothing has changed. (If you were asking, not sure).

    Theresa J
    Community Expert
    Theresa JCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 26, 2016

    CC Libraries are used to share assets between desktop apps and mobile apps, BUT you can only go from Draw on the iPad to Illustrator on a computer. It's not possible to send a file from Illustrator to Adobe Draw.

      D
      Adobe Employee
      davidmacy
      Adobe Employee
      February 26, 2016

      ‌Creative Cloud convert an Illustrator file (.ai) to an image rendition for on mobile devices. In Draw, tap on the photo layer to access Creative Cloud files, and select the .ai file. Creative Cloud will generate a high res image that is compatible with Adobe Illustrator Draw. This is not an editable vector file, but hopefully it is still useful.

        Edu Couchez
        Edu Couchez
        Inspiring
        February 3, 2019

        If you don't mind working with raster-based imagery it's pretty easy to send export Illustrator artwork as something like PNG image, save it in the Creative Cloud folder and then place that image into a layer within Adobe Illustrator DRAW. I might do that to use the Illustrator-generated artwork in a process of adding more organic looking layers of hand-drawn vector artwork to an otherwise clean layout. You can build up some interesting things in the back and forth process.

        On the other hand it is possible to take vector-based graphics created in Illustrator and then open and edit those graphics on the iPad with apps like Graphic or Vectornator and keep the results all in the vector realm. There are obvious big catches to that work flow. Plenty of Illustrator effects and features aren't supported in Graphic or Vectornator. Fonts are another hang-up.

        I find it kind of annoying to move artwork between the iPad and PC apps. I'm confined to doing it only a certain way, saving into a given cloud-based folder (my CC folder for Adobe apps, iCloud for other things, Dropbox for yet other things). I guess I'm old fashioned in that I like actual file managers that show disc drives, folders and all the info I want to see, be it the Finder in OSX or Windows' File Explorer. By comparison the file manager in the iPad Pro is about as basic and rudimentary as it gets. I have an (old) Samsung Note 5 phone. I can connect that phone to a computer via USB and it can behave just like an external disc drive. I can see most of the phone's folders and move files back and forth in a fast, straight-forward manner. I have many thousands of graphics files created over the years and they all have to be divided up and organized into many folders and sub-folders. I can't keep lots of things in my CC folder, Dropbox or iCloud. It would be too easy to things to build up and get disorganized after awhile. I guess the industry is going this direction since so many computer users just don't feel like learning how to organize their files. I've seen a lot of PCs over the years where the user only saved files in the "My Documents" folder and created a giant hulking mess.


        Yes... what I finally do is, as you say, convert everything to PNG to work in iPad. My preferred iPad illustration tool is Procreate, it’s a painting program without vectors, but with grid, perspective, isometric and guide aid tools that we could only dream in Illustrator. So everytime I want to draw ideas, paint an illustration, or sketch a logo, I import these PNG’s and use it as template to draw and add elements. Later I can export these modified PNG's again to Illustrator to use as a template to create the definitive vector work.

        Anyway, as inspiration happens everywhere, sometimes I would like I had an Adobe app right in iPad, with which I could at least, convert an AI file to a rasterized format (maybe some kind of Acrobar rendering engine, used to rasterize PDF’s). Right now, I need to wait to get an Illustrator near, to convert these files.

        And about filesystem… I’m like you, I’ve grown with the old folder hierarchy tree philosophy, so I need to use always a tree logic system to manage my projects, ideas and assets. In iPad, managing files from different cloud drives is still a nightmare and counterintuitive. For example, in the aforementioned Procreate app, you have to click many times to find the route to your images, because the program doesn’t let you navigate upwards in the file tree, so if you have to add another image in a upper level, you can only go back to the root folder and start do dig again in the branches.

        Definitively, iPad isn’t  (still) a computer replacement… it’s simply a fast and powerful tablet with tons of creative tools, perfect for cooperate with their big desktop brothers.

        Anupriya Khare
        Anupriya Khare
        Participating Frequently
        February 26, 2016

        Moving the discussion to Illustrator‌

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices