Illustrator file imported into InDesign loses dimensions

[Jason Burnett]

I have meticulously and mathematically created a vector image of the spine perforations for the arc disc system for a book I am working on. The book spine is 8.5 inches and the punched holes (about 10) are distributed vertically along the 8.5 inches.

I saved the file as an Illustrator document and placed the document into my InDesign template to represent the spine holes. This is a non-printing element that has to be exactly the right size and the holes need to be perfectly aligned. 

The artboard, contains not only the holes, but a solid white square background that is exactly .325" wide by 8.5" tall. Importing it into InDesign and the new size is .2667X 7.1241" at 100%.

Is this a bug with Illustrator Beta and InDesign Beta or is this the normal behavior kind of like Illustrator and Photoshop (which absolutely refuse to honor the dimensional data between the two programs). Could the fanboys who think this is reasonable explain why this makes more sense than importing a piece of vector artwork at the dimensions it was created so that 100% in InDesign is 100% in Illustrator. 

Is there any way (plugin/extension) that InDesign can import Illustrator artwork at 100% and have it be the same dimensions? Is there some Adobe-specific formula to that says, 100% in InDesign is really 123% of Illustrator. 

Also, when I import the file as an SVG it is is different size. As an EPS it is a different size. The only way to get the correct size is to import the file as a jpg. 

When importing as an Illustrator file, the size ratio is not even right. My original document is .3125" x 8.5" and the closes I can get while maintaing aspect ratios is 3.182 x 8.5. No I don't have a stroke on my white background. No it does not exetend off of my artboard. Yes the artboard is the exact size as the background and the background is positioned at 0,0.

This seems like an obvious bug to me, but I am sure there are plenty of people here to chew me out for questioning the developers' logic, so I am asking politely why this happens and what to do to resolve the issue.

[Ton Frederiks]

I guess the fan boys would recommend not to use beta versions for a book you are working on.

[Ton Frederiks]

That said, I cannot reproduce the problem, .325" wide by 8.5" tall comes in as .325" wide by 8.5" tall.

[Monika Gause]

SVG uses a different measurement system. So exporting an SVG for a book doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Jason Burnett]

Surely you are saying that AFTER reading that I tried every non-raster format possible. I wanted to see if the problem was limited to AI files or if it was across the board.

And if the book is going to be published online rather than printed, SVG is pretty much the most effective graphics format and perhaps the only valid vector graphics format that should work. Trying iit out makes a lot of sense if it helps find the bug.

[Monika Gause]

---

@Jason Burnett  schrieb:

Surely you are saying that AFTER reading that I tried every non-raster format possible. I wanted to see if the problem was limited to AI files or if it was across the board.

---

Trying things out makes of course sense. But SVG works differently when resolution is concerned. So it doesn't make sense to it out in this case, because most probably it won't work.

As for the electronic book scenario: yes of course SVG makes sense for that. But then you would have taken resolution into account from the start of the project. And not 5 minutes before publishing.

[Ton Frederiks]

Jason, can you make a package of an InDesign page that shows your problem with the different file formats and sizes?

I really cannot reproduce the problem, even the SVG behaves when saved for screens. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Hi Jason,

did you find a solution?

If not, can you share an example file so that we can troubleshoot your problem?