Any warnings against producing my magazines in Illustrator?

[Chris P. Bacon]

Apart from the lack of the grid system (which I abandoned, I am going to paint my layout in Illustrator) what can InDesign in terms of magazine production, that Illustrator can't?

[chrisg11235813]

Have you tried to cut and paste the vector graphics into inDesign? inDesign has some basic vector editing capibilities, but not as robust as illustrator.

I generally would'nt recomend this, but it seems fairly crucial that you tweak everything simultaneously as you go along.

[Chris P. Bacon]

I already mentioned in this thread that InDesign doesn't recognize SVG text outlines created by Illustrator.

But I will test now with the new versions.

[Chris P. Bacon]

And placing .ai into InDesign is not optimal at all, you are placing uneditable SVG, basically.

Why not place editable SVG, then?

Normal SVG (not .ai) is partially editable in InDesign.

And it can contain text as outlines.

So the only thing needed is an (eventually, OCR) capability for InDesign to reconvert outlines to type.

That probably need to be done frame by frame, but still, it can be done when the whole magazine is done, and no changes need to be made anymore.

And then the whole text can use further features that only InDesign support.

But currently the SVG outlines done by Illustrator are not even recognized by InDesign, let alone the ability to reconvert them to type.

Yet, the technology is out there, and possible:

Text Recognition in Illustrator: OCR plug-in to convert outlined text to live text - Esko

But I need it for InDesign, not for Illustrator.

[Chris P. Bacon]

The issue with the new copy paste with formatting feature is that it doesn't maintain text frame dimensions.

[chrisg11235813]

1) in InDesign, turn off the graphic layer (which is a link from illustrator  - an .ai file), export a reference PDF, of just the Text, positioned and sized on the page. 

2) Link that PDF reference into illustrator. It will be the same size as your illustrator page, positioning will fill the artboard. (next time you just have to update the link, no relinking necessary)

3) In illustrator, adjust your graphics to fit the text link. Save the file

4) In inDesign, update the background graphic link. Turn off the illustrator text layer of the link using Object Layer Options (you only have to do this once)

5) When you get new text, add it to the inDesign document.

6) Go back to step 1 and repeat.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Bot no, it's way too tedious. Text changes happen all the time.

[chrisg11235813]

it is not tedious.

I will simplify:

1) inDesign: Export text as PDF

2) illustrator: update (text) link

3) illustrator: adjust graphics, save

4) inDesign: update (graphics) link

5) inDesign: revise text

6) Repeat

[Chris P. Bacon]

Let me see how it works.

[Chris P. Bacon]

I don't need this anymore.

Because I will finish the full job in Illustrator, both text and graphics (and images).

Then I will hide the text layer in Illustrator, place each artboard into InDesign, then place the text with copy paste with formatting.

If you know instead how to avoid copying over text frame by frame and do it at once, please advise.

[SJRiegel]

If you save your finished Illustrator document as a pdf, you you use the Place Multi-Page PDF script (that comes with InDesign) to place all the pages at once

[Chris P. Bacon]

Thanks!

[Chris P. Bacon]

I might be forced to export into PDF because as you see I posted below, both .ai and .svg placements from Illustrator into InDesign are pixelated... how come?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If you insist on a very complex, nonstandard work flow, often to get around seemingly quite minor steps or issues, you are not likely to get a 'perfect' solution as it's unlikely one exists.

In particular, there is often no way to fully automate every process. All of us, every day, work around steps that have to be done manually, often each time a document is changed. To ask otherwise is to assume that Adobe apps are essentially AI-based and can be taught to do any task a designer can think of.

And again, an extremely long thread filled with exceptional expert advice has failed to change this. Odd, isn't it?

[Chris P. Bacon]

Okay, so the bully you is back.

Not reading your replies!

Bye bye.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Now I am really done with you. 

No more conversation between you and me on these forums. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

You asked a question.

The absolutely overwhelming answer, from some of the best minds in this field, is "Yes, there are many many warnings about doing it this way."

But 200 exchanges later, most of them yours, you basically ignored your own question and all the advice.

And if telling you so is "bullying," I won't even try to describe what your massive, repeated and pointless waste of many peoples' time for this nonsense is. You're abusing the good faith of some very good, dedicated volunteers here and can only get all p*ssy when we don't work out your bizarre needs for you.

Here's a clue. Now you have one.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

@James Gifford—NitroPress James, don't beat around the bush--tell us what you really think...😁

[chrisg11235813]

That solution was already given, you said that it was too tedius.

The above sugestion alows you to create the text within inDesign from the beginning. Saving you the step of copying the text and formatting into each text box after the project has been approved. This will reduce the potential for errors in copying and/or formatting.

My honest opinion is, and I don't mean to offend, If you don't actually need to use inDesign, and you are not comfortable using it, stick with illustrator. It will will save you the headaches when things start to go sideways with an application you are unfarmiliar with.

[Chris P. Bacon]

"create the text within inDesign from the beginning"?

I must create it in Illustrator, because that's where the graphics are created.

[chrisg11235813]

if you need the text in inDesign, then create the text in inDesign from the start.

I wrote out the steps to achieve what you are looking to do: Graphics from illustrator with text inside inDesign.

Maybe I a misunderstanding.  Why do you need the text to be "Live" inside the inDesign application?

if you are creating a PDF for final output, the text will still be a "Text Object" (if the linked illustrator file has "live text")

[Chris P. Bacon]

"if you need the text in inDesign, then create the text in Design from the start."

I create the graphics first, then the images and text, but it's difficult to maintain an order.  Smaller adjustments of both text and graphics even for images will be necessary, often, to find the sweet spot between layout and text. I create everything in Illustrator at once - by choice.

I will need to port it to InDesign after.

"I wrote out the steps to achieve what you are looking to do: Graphics from illustrator with text inside inDesign."

You are forgetting that I am creating both text and graphics and images in Illustrator - by choice.

The fixes come after that.

"Why do you need the text to be "Live" inside the inDesign application?"

To make use of the text features that are only available in InDesign.

"if you are creating a PDF for final output, the text will still be a "Text Object" (if the linked illustrator file has "live text")" - thanks I will look into it now, don't remember what was my issue with that option.

[chrisg11235813]

If you dont need to edit the text inside of inDesign, you only need to link your ilustrator files.

This means no headaches trying to move the live text to inDesign.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Why is placing both SVG and AI from Illustrator into Indesign pixelated, even though it's svg based?

I didn't notice this previously.

[chrisg11235813]

right click on the image, choose Display Performance>High Quality Display.

Also, be sure your links are updated / not missing

[Chris P. Bacon]

Ah forgot about that,

thanks.