Copy and paste assets from Illustrator to Indesign

[Benji-11]

Illustrator and Indesign don't understand each other.

This is one of the problems:

I'm designing a brand guideline booklet and I found it wasted a lot of my time.

To understand graphic designers: 

We start designing logos, icons, letterhead, business cards and other things in Illustrator, NOT in Indesign or Photoshop, XD.

We make makes assets and they get changed more than a few times, by designers and customers.

We make brand guidelines inside Indesign, not in Illustrator which is so weak to hold many graphic objects and pages and crashes.

We spent a lot of time making assets in Illustrator but if we want to copy and paste our assets (with some other guidelines or photos which necessary) to Indesign, Indesign breaks the links and converts them to simple shapes.

This problem should be fixed as we designers need that.

Adobe softwares should talk to each other to avoid double working which customers don't understand and won't pay. Believe it or not, this is one of the reasons that designers quit their careers. We get frustrated.

I hope the developers and UX designers of Adobe see this and find a good solution.

Thank you

[Willi Adelberger]

The correct way to get linked assets from Illustrato to InDesign is to save as PDF/X-4 or as AI and to import them via File > Place…

[Benji-11]

Thanks, Willi. May I ask you to explain that? We as designers, have to make components, such as atoms and molecules. like making components of an app or a website in Figma. Could you tell me about the workflow you suggested as a solution?

Thanks

[Benji-11]

Here is some information about Atomic Design.

https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/ui-design/atomic-design-principles-methodology-101/

https://www.justinmind.com/blog/atomic-design/

https://blog.kamathrohan.com/atomic-design-methodology-for-building-design-systems-f912cf714f53

As I mentioned before we start with the designing logo, wordmarks, many lockups defining the colors, DNA shapes, brand collateral, and much more. We need a clear system that works because designers and clients change things many times.

[Willi Adelberger]

Use symbols inside Illustrator. There are ways to teint or color them with different tools.

Use libraries to re-use objects. You can share libraries with colegues and use them in different applications.

[Benji-11]

Thank you, Willi,

There is no Symbols panel inside the Indesign to work with. CC Libraries is what I've been talking about. 

I'm working with Adobe applications for more than 23 years.

Let's back to the main problem:

We can't copy and paste our assets which are inside the CC Libraries panel from Illustrator to Indesign or from Indesign to Illustrator. It breaks the links from CC Libraries when you copy from one Illustrator to Indesign.

You may ask why you need to do that. you can just insert your assets from CC Libraries again. I would say it is not possible because we have around 70 graphic and color assets inside the CC Libraries,  and we use them in different places like T-shirts, brand collateral, and other things ( it can be up to 300 items) that can't be designed in Indesign. We have to design them in Illustrator, but in the end, we need to bring them into Indesign to make a Brand Guidelines. A Brand Guidelines can be 30 to 200 pages. This can be so overwhelming when things get changed again and again and again.

[Eugene Tyson]

We can't copy and paste our assets which are inside the CC Libraries panel from Illustrator to Indesign or from Indesign to Illustrator. It breaks the links from CC Libraries when you copy from one Illustrator to Indesign.

You may ask why you need to do that. you can just insert your assets from CC Libraries again. I would say it is not possible because we have around 70 graphic and color assets inside the CC Libraries

By @Benji-11

CC Libraries will only allow to transfer a singular asset to the library.

When you place that - it doesn't not produce a link - but the entire block.

So copying assets this way from InDesign and Illustrator is not a solution.

Instead - you should save your Illustrator file with the asset - then use File>Place in Indesign/Illustrator. 

This creates the link to the file. When you edit the file - you'll be warned through the Links panel that the graphic is updated.

[Benji-11]

Thank you, Eugene.

This is how I'm doing it. I want to point out that this is unexpected from Adobe software and it is painful that there is no cohesive and strong system.

[Eugene Tyson]

I disagree. You're just using it wrong and expecting results you want to see. 

It is cohesive - you do need to create links to the files stored on your computer.

This could also be in a shared assets folder. 

Imagine sharing a Library of approved images with somebody. And they decide they like the logo in bright pink (not in branding) and change the logo in the Library - you open your files and find that ALL the logos are updated to BRIGHT PINK! 

You'd be cursing Adobe for making it that way - this is what you're proposing is that Library items are linked. 

But they are not - and for good reason.

You create the assets - you store them either on a DAM or a shared cloud service or by email.

When the links are updated you're warned in the Links Panel that the link was updated. 

Use links - not libraries for what you're trying to do.

[Benji-11]

Thanks, Eugene. To better understand the problem, I'll walk you through user flow. I know in your valuable position, it is not necessary to be a graphic designer, but I want to know if you are a designer. If so, please describe the largest brand identity with brand guidelines you've created and how many pieces were they.

[Eugene Tyson]

Not relevant. I have 25 years experience and worked on 1000s of brands for small medium large national and multinational. 

[Benji-11]

WOW. Thank you, Eugene. I didn't expect that many experiences! This is amazing. Thanks for sharing that. May I invite you to a real-world challenge?

[Eugene Tyson]

Absolutely not.

[Benji-11]

 Your answer is totally OK, Eugene. 🤪 But, anyone who is an expert in Adobe apps and disagrees with what I've said is welcome to a real-world brand identity challenge from start to finish.

Thank you

[Eugene Tyson]

I do real world challenges in the real world every day.

Problem with online fake/spec work/competitions/challenges is that they don't reflect the real world. 

If you're here to promote challenges, spec work, or any other type of crowdsourcing I would encourage you to desist. 

Thank you

[Benji-11]

Hey man, I'm a graphic and user experience designer. Nothing is fake, and I believe what I've said.  Many times I wanted to quit my job as a graphic designer. No matter what computer I get, I feel that I'm slow because of Adobe's applications. It kills my time and speed, energy and confidence. (Please don't be one of those experts that say to use Adobe applications as a solution)

The challenge would be great for Adobe's UX designers. They can learn many things from it and understand one of the biggest pain points of the new young designers and professional designers that have no other choices.

[Eugene Tyson]

Your problem is trying to use the wrong tool to do the job. And trying to shoehorn your own work methods to something that isn't designed to work that way.

You're more interested in trying to get it to work your way rather than the way the software is designed to work. 

There's plenty of other software out there - nobody is forcing you to use Adobe.

I've used Adobe successfully for 25 years and embraced its workflows. 

If you're not interested in the advice of the professionals on the forum and insist that it won't work because you're refusing to use it the way it's designed to be used then there's nothing anybody on this forum can do for you.

Best of luck.

[Randy Hagan]

Eugene, this guy is trolling you. Set yourself free.

[Eugene Tyson]

I have, it's grand I've moved on. If there's anything I can help with I will. But if the question is asked and the answer is given and the advice is not taken there's not much else to say or do.

[Benji-11]

Eugene, this guy is trolling you. Set yourself free.

By @Randy Hagan

I'm sorry that you, who have a title as a community expert, insulted me rather than understanding the problem and trying to help and solve it. Good luck, man. Maybe this is my mistake that I broght the problem into the community.

If you expert guys don't like the discution, you can delete it forever, but please before deleting it, report this to a UX team of Adobe.

Thanks

[Eugene Tyson]

Report bugs or make a feature request

https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

[Benji-11]

Thank you

[Benji-11]

Willi, As far as I know, there is no solution because the structures of the two software are completely different.

Copy and paste CC Library assets and Symbols assets do not work, between this two software.

For now, we have to work with only Illustrator if we want to work with CC Library or Symbols and split the pages into  10 to 15 files.

[Eugene Tyson]

I gave you the solution already.

[Willi Adelberger]

If you want to get linked assets from Photoshop is:

1. If you have flat images, you can use JPG, TIFF or PSD or PDF/PDP (Photoshop PDF)
2. If you have images with transparency or layers or layer comps use PSD, PDF/PDP or TIFF. 
3. If you want to use images with text other vectors, use PDF/PDP.