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Certain AI files don't import into my InDesign file.

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
July 19, 2017
5 replies
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I'm using the latest versions of both Illustrator and InDesign. I have one AI file, though, that isn't importing into my ID document. It merely has text in place of its little icon, which appears pixelated in the image box when I import the file. There's information about Save As and Options in that text, but it's cut off and I can't make it out. It's almost as if it were some out-of-date EPS format or some such, but the Illustrator file is no different from any other AI file, as far as I can tell. I created it a few weeks ago.

This as usual is a problem with an obvious answer, I'm sure. But I haven't been able to find it.

Rob

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Correct answer Dov Isaacs

Actually, InDesign doesn't place Illustrator files; it places PDF files. Thus, the only .AI files that can be successfully placed into InDesign if the following three are true based on the options specified when first saving the Illustrator file:

(1) The Version specified is Illustrator 10 or newer.

(2) The Create PDF Compatible File option is selected.

(3) The option for including ICC profiles is selected.

Otherwise, the .AI cannot be placed successfully into an InDesign document! Although the third consideration above doesn't affect whether the .AI file can be placed into an InDesign document, if the ICC profiles are not in the PDF-compatible .AI file, not only are the ICC profiles missing, but the objects are specified as DeviceCMYK or DeviceRGB, very likely resulting in color anomalies in your InDesign document for the placed content and resulting final output.

Furthermore, since it is possible to open such PDF-compatible .AI files in Acrobat or other PDF file manipulation products, it is possible that the PDF portion may be modified without modifying the source Illustrator content. In other words, it is possible that you lose synchronization between the Illustrator content versus the PDF content, noting that what gets placed in InDesign is the PDF content, not the Illustrator source content which is stored in the PDF file as private data (PieceInfo).

Another issue to be aware of is that when saving PDF-compatible .AI files, raster imagery is saved as if when explicitly saving PDF, the image settings are for ZIP-compressed, non-downsampled images. This is non-lossy, but could result in unnecessarily large files.

That having been said, I most strongly recommend that Illustrator files not be placed into InDesign. Rather, a more reliable workflow practice is to use the Save as Copy and select PDF. For the options, choose the Adobe Preset labelled PDF/X-4:2008 which actually uses the PDF/X-4:2010 standard. You may modify the detailed settings to meet your needs (especially image downsampling and format), but as-is, they will normally provided very high quality graphics. Place the resultant PDF file into your InDesign document!

- Dov

Updated on July 19, 2019

David W. Goodrich

Participating Frequently

Another undesirable behavior with Illustrator's Save-As PDF command is that it can change some metadata, overwriting whatever is in the category dc:title (which File Info calls "Document Title") with the AI file's name. This is true for CS6, which I use daily, but has continued at least until 2017 -- see XMP dc:title to pdf. The workarounds recommended there is to use another program, such as Acrobat, Bridge, ExifTool, etc., to correct dc:title. Is that still necessary?

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi David,

just tested this with Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 23.0.3 on Windows 10.

Yes. The Document Title for a saved PDF/X-4 out of Illustrator is automatically set to the name of the PDF file.

Despite I did a different title before in the AI file info. FWIW: Author entry is the same as with the AI file.

Regards,
Uwe

David W. Goodrich

Participating Frequently

Thank you for confirming my fears. I used to think a only raster images in PDFs generated with InDesign could carry "object-level metadata": Acrobat Pro's Edit Object lets you select an image, right click on it, and one of the choices is "Show Metadata", including dc:title, Copyright Notice, etc. Changing to the Advanced page lets you see the metadata categories grouped by schema, and you can save them to an *.xmp file.

For a placed AI vector image, the Edit Object tool shows a bunch of vectors, none of which offer Show Metadata. I thought any metadata I added in AI got lost in the shuffle to PDF, and I'd have to wait for full implementation of PDF format 2.0 to allow object-level metadata for vector images. Recently I was startled to find that InDesign has been passing it on to PDF for years. A 2016 post on the ExifTool forum shows that ExifTool can show metadata that I inserted into an AI file placed in ID: ExifTool's -ee option can access PDF metadata below the top level. In particular, dc:title and dc:description survived in my test sample, despite processing by an on-line service that routinely strips top-level XMP metadata from PDFs. I don't know how to connect this lower-level metadata with particular parts of the PDF's object stream, and don't plan to delve that deep in PDF structure. But I continue to hope that eventually it will be relatively convenient to view metadata for vector resources -- identification, copyright, etc.

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

Not entirely true, Dov. Illustrator 8 and earlier files can be placed in InDesign. In fact AI8 is my favourite format for logos.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

Actually, Illustrator 8 and earlier files are really .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files. Note that they don't support ICC color management and/or live transparency! If you have artwork that doesn't need color management and/or any transparency, be my guest.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

Dov IsaacsCorrect answer

Legend

Actually, InDesign doesn't place Illustrator files; it places PDF files. Thus, the only .AI files that can be successfully placed into InDesign if the following three are true based on the options specified when first saving the Illustrator file:

(1) The Version specified is Illustrator 10 or newer.

(2) The Create PDF Compatible File option is selected.

(3) The option for including ICC profiles is selected.

Otherwise, the .AI cannot be placed successfully into an InDesign document! Although the third consideration above doesn't affect whether the .AI file can be placed into an InDesign document, if the ICC profiles are not in the PDF-compatible .AI file, not only are the ICC profiles missing, but the objects are specified as DeviceCMYK or DeviceRGB, very likely resulting in color anomalies in your InDesign document for the placed content and resulting final output.

Furthermore, since it is possible to open such PDF-compatible .AI files in Acrobat or other PDF file manipulation products, it is possible that the PDF portion may be modified without modifying the source Illustrator content. In other words, it is possible that you lose synchronization between the Illustrator content versus the PDF content, noting that what gets placed in InDesign is the PDF content, not the Illustrator source content which is stored in the PDF file as private data (PieceInfo).

Another issue to be aware of is that when saving PDF-compatible .AI files, raster imagery is saved as if when explicitly saving PDF, the image settings are for ZIP-compressed, non-downsampled images. This is non-lossy, but could result in unnecessarily large files.

That having been said, I most strongly recommend that Illustrator files not be placed into InDesign. Rather, a more reliable workflow practice is to use the Save as Copy and select PDF. For the options, choose the Adobe Preset labelled PDF/X-4:2008 which actually uses the PDF/X-4:2010 standard. You may modify the detailed settings to meet your needs (especially image downsampling and format), but as-is, they will normally provided very high quality graphics. Place the resultant PDF file into your InDesign document!

- Dov

Updated on July 19, 2019

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

R

Rob EhleAuthor

Known Participant

There we go!

And when I did this, it answered one remaining question, i.e., how to get a transparent background. Which, it turns out, is an option when I import.

Thanks so much to all three of you for prompt replies.

Rob

Dov Isaacs

Legend

If placing PDF/X-4 really does produce superior output, I wish Dov would provide a concrete example—I must be missing something. When I check the PDF/X-4 export of an InDesign document containing an .AI and a PDF/X-4 version of the same file, Acrobat’s Object Inspector shows no benefit with the PDF/X-4 version. In fact a default PDF/X-4 out of Illustrator might down sample and compress placed images. See this thread, in my example the PDF/X-4 version fails InDesign‘s preflight:

Re: Adobe Indesign CC 2019 / Apple MacOS Mojave 10.14.5

(1) I have updated my response (July 19, 2019) above with some additional considerations that should answer your question(s) and or give you more to consider.

(2) What InDesign Preflight error are you getting? You mentioned that you were getting an error but I seemed to miss what error that was. Depending upon what that error was and the criteria that were specified for the InDesign Preflight, the error may be a false positive, irrelevant, and/or an InDesign bug – I have no way of knowing which. If you can provide a small, simple sample, I can follow up on that.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

BobLevine

Community Expert

That file was saved without PDF compatibility. Do a file save as and add that.

R

Rob EhleAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks, Bob.

I knew it had to be something like that, but I don't see this option in my Save As dialogue. (And am surprised I somehow changed it to begin with, since PDF-compatibility would seem to be the default.)

JonathanArias

Legend

Can you open the files in illustrator? if so, can you go file save as and save it to the latest version of illustrator?

Next, can you try to place it in to indesign and show a screenshot?

can you also try to typeset the part that is text in indesign and with the file open on illustrator, select just the art and past into indesign, if you can do this, what happens?

screenshots help

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