PDF is not meant for editing. They might be able to make changes or adjustments to the file, but I would be skeptical if they claimed they do this often and it's "no problem". Editing PDFs is usually a last resort sort of thing. If you want to give them a file that's good quality and can be edited, then you should ignore any issues about file size. Everything is a compromise. All a file can ever be is data. If you want a smaller file, then you must remove data. If you remove data, you are sending them less file than they might need or you want to send. It's OK to try to trim a few MB here or there. Linking, rather than embedding images is one way. Saving as AI file without PDF compatibility is another. I actually really like that one, since it forces them to use the Illustrator file, not the embedded PDF. Remember to send linked files, too. If you outline fonts, then no need to send fonts or worry about font licensing issues, but then, forget about making type corrections without sending a new file. Put all files in one folder and ZIP that folder, then send that ZIP file. If it's too big for email, then use FTP or other file sharing services. ... View more

You cannot open an Illustrator file with InDesign. The steps you describe are for Placing the file, which just creates a link to the external AI file. That's why the XML export is also just a link to the same file. If you want to convert your AI file to an editable InDesign file you can try two methods. One is to just try Copying from Illustrator and Pasting into InDesign. If your artwork is simple and uses no effects or gradient meshes, you might get lucky and have a good conversion. That's probably not what will happen. The other method, which I've never tried, is to save a PDF then use Recosoft's PDF2ID plug-in. Maybe they have a trial version you can test out. ... View more

Wade_Zimmerman wrote: I still think the Live Paint group is the easiest way I don't. Not transparent without extra steps. Not able to use live text. Not able to use a soft shadow. Goes to pieces if the shadow is moved. ... View more

For something with a gradient or pattern you probably will be better off with a compound path. Copy the text with outlines. Draw a rectangle around the existing text and make a compound path with the text and the rectangle. Now you have an inverse shape with your text acting as holes in the rectangle. Fill with our shadow colour, blur if necessary, and set opacity mode to Multiply in the Transparency panel, and set the transparency level (I used 70%). This will become the shadow, so move it however much you want the shadow to be offset. Paste in Front, Shift-click to select the shadow, and create you mask. One problem with Illustrator is (for no good reason whatsoever) your fill and stroke are removed when you make a mask. No worry. Paste (not Paste in Front) to create a new copy of the original text. Use the eyedropper to copy the gradient to your mask. In fact, using the live Pathfinder tools, you don't need to convert the text to paths. The samples above use live text. Click here for AI CS2 file. ... View more

I think you just missed my previous post. ... View more

The forums are running especially bucket awful today. Must be running at half-gerbil. Here's what I did: Copy text, Edit > Paste Behind, use cursor keys to move copy, Shift-click on original text, Object > Clipping mask > Make. Now select just the top text item and use the Appearance panel to Add New Fill, giving it the colour of the drop shadow. Done, unless you want a soft shadow like on the bottom. Then use Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur on the bottom text item. ... View more

It is nothing short of incompetence and negligence that Illustrator, at version 14, still cannot set text fully justified. Using a separate, expensive program just to set justified text is not a reasonable option, nor is it viable to people without InDesign or without computers with enough power or RAM to run both programs simultaneously. We must continue to hound Adobe and make as many people (especially potential buyers) aware of just how awful this situation is and what it means that Adobe continues to promote Illustrator's typographic features when such a basic necessity (which even Word can do) has been neglected for years. ... View more

There really should be laws against being this bucket stupid. Maybe now that Goob and Chaney are out... ... View more

John Joslin wrote: Let's just say, anything with Adobe in the name.   Even their promotional emails are practically unreadable! That's why I tag them as Spam. If we all do it in our webmail interfaces, then eventually Google, Yahoo, et al will start doing it for us (and for everyone else). ... View more

They keep piling new stuff on over old, most of it laden down with scripts and animations. Maybe it's meant to be visually exciting   —   I find it a pain in the neck. It has got beyond the point of needing a cleanup; they have to start again from scratch. Are you talking about Adobe.com or Illustrator? Because that could apply to both. ... View more

Jesseham wrote: No, I mean it's increased the quality.  People are trying harder for points.  It's also helped by the fact that images are so easily incorporated. But you're wrong. The most helpful posters don't give a bucket about silly points. They (we?) know who they are. I know I never came to the old forum for points, and nothing has changed that. I come to help and to encounter new problems that encourage me to find solutions, improving my own knowledge. I also occasionally have a question. Points may have increased the quantity of responses (some of which may be correct), but it hasn't produced better answers. If anything, allowing a post to be marked "answered" discouraged help. In other words, like EVERY bucket change to the forum, points are a bad idea. ... View more

You can't. Each line of text requires an explicit path. You could draw the top line and the bottom line, then make a three-step blend between the two. Expand the blend then link the paths so that text from path 1 flows to path 2, and so on. In the example below each path is linked to the one below. I only needed to paste text into the top path. I was able to link to each following path by clicking on the red + at the end of the previous path, then clicking on the path below. You could also design the label flat and use a distortion envelope or Warp effect to bend it. This is how I have done such labels in the past. That method requires more experimentation, but makes edits easier. ... View more

Only seem to be able to bookmark recent discussion, not any discussion or any forum. Edit: Nope, can't do a damn thing on that page. Dragging does not affect home page, it's just like dragging any link in Safari. As I said, [Edit: Profanity removed.] ... View more

Maybe I misunderstand the problem of navigating to Favorite Forums.  But why not just bookmark the forum you want to visit, click and you are there? The old method required one bookmark. Back from the Illustrator Mac forum would be one keystroke to the Message Centre where I had access to all my favourite forums. Your suggestion (which is sadly the only solution) would require over a dozen bookmarks and  a trip to the bookmark bar, and likely through a submenu whenever I wanted to switch forums, rather that one simple keystroke. [Edit: Profanity removed] and proof that Adobe does not care one gram about their users. ... View more

It would also be nice if the reply field was already on the page without requiring one more slow page load. Also nice would be if the forum remembered where you were last time you read a post so you could scroll right to the unread messages. Also nice would a lot less clutter all over the screen. I don't need to see avatars or how long someone's been on the forum. Even less useful is the More Like This section which I'll bet nobody uses more than once, since it's so awful. Also nice would be the ability to use my browser's spelling checker instead of having to load the forum's slow. clunky one that doesn't have my custom dictionary in it. What the fuck were they thinking when they put that in there? We had all of these features, and much more, in the old forums. But the assholes in Adobe's marketing department, who are obviously trying to run the company into the ground, felt the forum needed better visual branding to make it look more Adobe-esque. I guess that means as crappy as they've made Illustrator in the last eight years. The new forums are a total, craptacular failure. There's less debate about that among forum regulars then there is about global warming or evolutions among scientists. In the last six or seven years I have seen Adobe make dumber and dumber mistakes and show less interest in correcting them or even acknowledging them, than in any other company, including Microsoft (MS even let HP keep selling PSc with WXP until 2010, a full two versions below what they expect to then sell themselves). Remember that this is the same company that's fully satisfied with the program icons in the entire suite; that thinks the last six versions of Illustrator were ready to ship when they did; that thinks the installer for CS4 is an improvement over CS3, which was an improvement over CS2; and that the Adobe updater is not a huge annoying bucket of shit. Basically, we're screwed. Edit: Censoring's new. Don't really care about that, but why did they bleep "b u c k e t"? ... View more

As I said, the bookmarking features we had before are NOT available in the new Uckfayed Upay forum. I used to be able to bookmark a specific post, a specific thread, or a specific forum area (e.g. Mac Illustrator). Not anymore. My one browser based bookmark took me to my "Message Centre" page with all bookmarked pages available. This new forum is a total failure in almost every imaginable measure. Jesus, I can't even use my browser's spelling dictionary. All this money spent, and all it did was make we want to burn Adobe's building down... more! I keep thinking they've hit rock bottom with quality (every version of Adobe Updater and every Creative Suite installer), and I keep being wrong. WTF are they smoking at Adobe HQ? First remove dead tree documentation, despite increasing complexity of multiple applications. Then make on-line help harder and harder to use and search. Finally take the one last-best hope for user support -- which is free for Adobe -- and make it harder for us to help people, making us much less likely to do so. I will have to think long and hard before I fork over one more nickel to these idiots. ... View more

Me too. I just don't get why Adobe keeps spending piles of money to make stuff worse, like almost every version of Illustrator after 8. This new, crappier forum is an ideal example of this. Slow? Check! More difficult to navigate? Check! Can't post images inline within message? Check! Have to login every day? Check! Basically unusable on an iPhone? Check! Note to Adobe: Mobile devices are the faster growing market of web users. Want to alienate the future of the market? You're doing the right thing. No bookmark page as before? Check! Can't select text using Shift plus cursor keys? Check! Seriously. WTF? Can't use browser-based dictionary? Check! Handy pop-up menu to navigate to different areas NOT included on every page? Check! That pop-up menu from above: Does it require clicking on a Go button after making a selection? Check! Kills puppies? Not yet. Alienates Adobe's greatest source of free tech support? Check! Gets an F minus? Check! ... View more

Slow? Hell yes. Overly complicated? Ditto. Usual Adobe eye candy and gloss to replace slick and functional? Check. This is the worst "upgrade" since the last four upgrades to Illustrator. If you have sex with Adobe you'll have to be on top. They can only screw up. ... View more

Use a round Cap and set the dash values to 0 for the stroke and any larger number for the gap. ... View more

Totally. There is no reason not to make your document size the trim size. (Unless you're using Illustrator, and Gods help you.) ... View more

> Why in the world would Adobe discontinue this useful capability? I don't believe they did. Actions have never been a feature of InDesign. ... View more

I often see this when I convert from PDF. This might be a gradient or other artwork that can be defined in PDF but is not editable in Illustrator. I even see this when I save as PDF without Illustrator Editing Capability then re-open in Illustrator. Perfectly normal gradients are now "Non-native art". ... View more

> Hello!!!!! ADOBE!!!!!!!!! Read the name of this forum again. It's at the top of the page, underneath the Adobe logo. ... View more

Any default can be set by changing a value with nothing selected. With no object selected, change the kerning value in the Character panel. This will set the default for the document, but existing text and styles will not change. Change styles in the appropriate style panel, change any other text with Find/Change. ... View more

You can place an Illustrator file, but other than scaling, rotating, and cropping the content is not editable in InDesign. You can place the Illustrator file, set it's transparency to 50%, lock it's layer, then redraw the content on lower layers. Delete the template layer when finished. You can copy and paste content between Illustrator and InDesign. Basic shapes and simple paths work fine, including some gradients. Text is much more trouble than it should be. (Why call it a Suite if the programs can't share simple content like text?) I prefer option 2, using as little of option 3 as I can get away with. Obviously complex shapes are better copied than retraced. There is a plug-in for InDesign that imports PDFs. I have heard mixed opintions, but it's kind of like a pig with wings. Who cares how well it flies, it's that it flies that makes it interesting. ... View more

Layers Panel menu > Paste Remembers layers. Also, try RTFM. ... View more