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Tamzid Hasan
Participating Frequently
October 21, 2019
Question

Why am I not able to copy and paste vector icons from XD to InDesign?

  • October 21, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 1977 views

Hi there! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I've a question in my mind. Why am I not able to copy and paste vector icons from XD to InDesign? I'm in trouble because I need to have the vector icons inside the InDesign file. Please help me. TIA!

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    Community Expert
    October 23, 2019

    Hi Tamzid,

    if this is the SVG code you could copy it to an empty text file and save with suffix .svg.

    You now have an SVG file. Now the question: What software do you have installed for turning this into a placeable file with InDesign?

     

    If Inkscape is installed open the file with Inkscape and save it as PDF. Then place the PDF on your InDesign page.

    But be aware that this file contains RGB colors you have to deal with elsewhere if the purpose of the InDesign document is print publishing! ( Just tested. )

     

    Don't know if this will help: Maybe Corel Draw can open the SVG file, you could edit the paths or changing the colors to CMYK if you want and then export to PDF. ( Not tested. )

     

    If you need the vector paths editable with InDesign you'll need Adobe Illustrator.

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender

    ( ACP )

    Community Expert
    October 22, 2019

    Hi Tamzid,

    you are saying that you see some code when trying to copy/paste from XD to InDesign.

    Is this perhaps the code for a Scalable Vector Graphic ( SVG ) file?

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender

    ( ACP )

    Tamzid Hasan
    Participating Frequently
    October 23, 2019

    I believe you're correct.

    Legend
    October 21, 2019

    Copying and pasting images to InDesign is considered by many people to be bad working practice. The InDesign file gets very large and has an increased chance of corruption, and image management becomes messy. It is considered (by many) better to prepare all your graphics in directories for the publication, and place them. To keep them vector may be a challenge.

    Tamzid Hasan
    Participating Frequently
    October 21, 2019

    Thanks for your comment. I also like to keep all the linked files in a folder to keep everything organized. But this is a small icon which is basically very small in size. That's why I'm trying to follow this way. But you're correct: "To keep them vector may be a challenge"

    John Mensinger
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 21, 2019

    While there is import/export integration, as far as I can tell, the XD vector graphics "engine" wasn't coded for direct copy/paste/edit compatibility with the likes of InDesign and Illustrator. Have you tried loading the asset into a CC Library and pulling to InDesign from there?

    Steve Werner
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 21, 2019

    Who ever promised they would work? What file format are they in? If they are SVG, InDesign CC 2019 doesn't support SVG import, but future versions of InDesign are promised to do so.

     

    Try opening them in Illustrator then bringing them to InDesign.

    Tamzid Hasan
    Participating Frequently
    October 21, 2019

    I'm so sorry if it sounds aggressive to you. But I just wanted to know the actual reason. However, when I try to  paste icon from XD to InDesign, I can see some codes inside a textframe which is I think the way it works. Looking forward to see this feature enabled in InDesign very soon 🙂

     

    I know I can copy and paste vector objects as path from Illustrator into InDesign document, but I don't have access to Illustrator at this moment. This is why I'm trying to find an alternative.