Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
ILLUSTRATOR & ADOBE INDESIGN
•
To edit Illustrator objects in InDesign when using copy/paste,
in InDesign's Preferences,
disable Prefer PDF When Pasting. Then pasted objects can be ungrouped and edited.
Paste objects containing complex appearances (such as brushes, effects, or
gradients), either with preserved paths (objects lose any complex appearances), or
with preserved appearances (complex appearances will be flattened and expanded).
Control whether pasting preserves paths or appearances in the Copy As section of
Preferences> File Handling & Clipboard.
Pasting text into InDesign
You can paste type from Illustrator to InDesign either as editable text, or, to preserve
appearance, as a graphic object. If you want to paste editable text, in Illustrator
enable AICB and Preserve Path in File Handling Preferences; in InDesign choose
Preferences> Clipboard Handling and select Text Only. If instead you'd rather
preserve the appearance of Illustrator text (if it includes, for instance, transparency or
a pattern fill), choose All Information. This treats pasted text as an object so that you
can apply effects and transform it, but you won't be able to edit the text.
•
To place Illustrator artwork (linking it rather than embedding),
save your file with the
Create PDF Compatible File option enabled (it's on by default). InDesign, as well as
other programs, can interpret and preview only the PDF portion of the file.
•
To control how an Illustrator file imports,
enable Show Import Options in the Place
dialog. If you're placing an Illustrator file containing multiple artboards, InDesign
allows you to select which artboard to import; the Layers tab in the Import dialog lets
you control visibility of top-level Illustrator layers.
Illustrator layers in InDesign
To control the layer visibility of an Illustrator file in InDesign, when you choose Place,
enable “Show Import Options,” or select a file you've already placed in InDesign and
choose Object> Object Layer Options. In the Object Layer Options dialog, click an
Eye icon to hide or show any layer. At the bottom of the dialog you can choose
whether to update layer visibility settings for a linked Illustrator file when the link is
updated.
Illustrator & 3D Programs
In addition to Illustrator's 3D effects (see the
Reshaping Dimensions
chapter), you can
also import Illustrator paths into 3D programs to use as outlines and extrusion paths.
Once you import a path, you can transform it into a 3D object. Photoshop's 3D
features can work with any closed path whether pasted as pixels, path, or Shape
layer. Autodesk Maya, Strata 3D CX, Trimble SketchUp!, and NewTec LightWave
are just a few of the many full-featured 3D programs that you can use in combination
with Illustrator.
