Illustrator

[aleGi]

Why is there no table management such as in the Indesign program? If I want to make a table I have to use the "text in the area" where I have the possibility of creating lines and columns but which are too static and in any case linked together, while Indesign has the same function but inside the tablo there can be different fields of different formed, depending on the needs.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Please post feature requests to https://illustrator.uservoice.com The engineers don't read the forum.

[Bill Silbert]

The programs in the Creative Cloud family are designed to be used in conjunction with one another. Illustrator is designed as a drawing program with some functions for typography and layout. InDesign is a sophisticated layout program with some drawing tools. Most professional users would not use InDesign to draw a complex line drawing. So the question really is why would you want to make a complex table using a drawing program? While it may seem more convenient to be able to do everything in one program, in the long run using the inappropriate program for any purpose will always fall short. 

[Monika Gause]

So the question really is why would you want to make a complex table using a drawing program?

By @Bill Silbert

That's pretty simple: packaging design.

For several reasons packaging design needs to be done in Illustrator as Illustrator files. And there are lots of tables in them typically. ESKO has tools for text management, which leads to the situation that companies are even doing page layout in Illustrator (those product sheets that come with medicine packages). It's totally crazy, but that's the situation. They need to use Illustrator in order to use that text management.

[Bill Silbert]

For several reasons packaging design needs to be done in Illustrator as Illustrator files. And there are lots of tables in them typically.

By @Monika Gause

I spent a good part of my working life in medical advertising so I actually spent many years doing medical packaging in Illustrator. It really is a far more precise way to marry the package design to a diestrike than combining the design and die in InDesign. Strangely, though I can't remember a package I worked on that needed a complex table but it does make sense that there would be instances where a table would be needed. The package inserts however we always did in InDesign. For medical inserts, at least in the US, there are so many restrictions and requirements in regard to type size and prominence that using the more sophisticated type program always seemed like the way to go. Like you said, Monika, it's crazy.

[Monika Gause]

I've seen tables in those medical packaging leaflets and also a lot of them in packaging for chemicals. And there are of course lots of tables on food packaging. I've worked with different companies around packaging. Some use InDesign, but most use Illustrator. Either because they are printing in China or because they are using ESKO.