Clipping Mask from Illustrator?

[turner111]

I'm pretty sure I'm overlooking something obvious, but..

How do we make a clipping path from a placed Illustrator (.ai) object?
Been reading/experimenting for a half hour. In Illustrator it's incredibly easy, but I can't get anything to work in InDesign.

Essentially, in ID, I have a placed Illustrator object and a placed image file, and would like the Illustrator object to contain and clip the image.

thanks

[Barb Binder]

Hi @turner111:

You can add the .ai artwork and image as separate layers in Photoshop. Drag the image above the .ai artwork, right click > Create Clipping Mask. Add the resulting image (clipped by the .ai file) to InDesign. 

~Barb

[turner111]

Hi Barb - Yes, I'm aware of how to make them in other apps.

What I'm asking if there's a way to do it in InDesign, so that I can make edits in-document.
(Like Paste Into...)

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Hi @turner111 , You can bring the AI object into InDesign as editable vectors via copy and paste—make sure your AI Clipboard Prefs are set to Preserve paths before you copy

Paste into ID and trash the interior graphic frame containing the clipped objects:

That leaves the clipping path, which you can paste an object into:

[turner111]

Ah, ok - so we can't use a placed AI file?
Was hoping to be able to edit after placing. I guess this may be the next best thing.

[BobLevine]

When you place an AI file you are placing a PDF of that file.

[John Mensinger]

You can use a placed AI object, if you follow all the steps I posted below.

[rob day]

Was hoping to be able to edit after placing. I guess this may be the next best thing.

The vectror clipping path and its contents would be live in InDesign, can’t you just edit the path(s) in InDesign?

[John Mensinger]

Or, you can try this:

Select your placed Illustrator object and choose Object > Clipping Path > Options...

Choose Detect Edges from the Type: menu at the top of the Clipping Path dialog, and click OK

Choose Object > Clipping Path > Convert Clipping Path to Frame

Deselect

Select the placed image and choose Edit > Copy

Select the frame converted from the Illustrator shape and Choose Edit > Paste Into...

[turner111]

Hi John - tried this (actually was the first thing I tried), but Paste Into ignores the path & just fills the frame.

[John Mensinger]

Well then I'd have to assume you missed something...I did it (3 times) as I wrote the reply, and it worked.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

An alternate method to clipping would be to copy (image) and paste into (shape).

Keep in mind that complex pasted shapes may not behave as they would in Illustrator.

[turner111]

Thanks Jeffrey - do you mean a default (ID-based) shape, or something else? I wasn't able to figure out how to create a "shape" from the placed Illustrator object, just into a pasted Illustrator object, per Rob's post above.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

I am referring to any shape, created in ID or Illustrator.