Ai document will only place as PDF, correct preferences ignored

[vectorhead1]

Hi! My first time on this forum. I spent much time working on my Illustrator logo, and wish to precisely as possible place it into Indesign for a brochure. No matter what I do, it inserts this logo as a PDF file! I am using Indesign 3.0 and Illustrator 11.0. In Indesign preferences I have UNCHECKED the box prefer PDF when pasting, and unchecked copy PDf to clipboard, as per the help section. In Illustrator preferences, AICB is checked with preserve aprearances and paths, with PDF unchecked. I've tried numerous times to no avail, each time it places the logo as a PDF, which greatly degades my carefully wrought gradients into harsh concentric rings.

Has anyone else had this problem, and is there some other way to trick the programs into placing my logo as an Ai file in Indesign, so it is better preserved and also can be edited? Thanks much in advance for any insight!

 

[Eggles]

The problem must be on the Illustrator end, not InDesign's, as ID cannot change the format of image files.

When you save the Illustrator file, what choices are you given?

 

[vectorhead1]

Thanks for the reply! This is from Indesign Help: "If the Illustrator graphic is uneditable in InDesign, it was pasted in PDF instead of Adobe Illustrator clipboard (AICB) format. Verify that Prefer PDF When Pasting is not selected in the General Preferences (Indesign) dialog box (see Setting preferences) and that Illustrator is configured to copy as AICB (see the Adobe Illustrator documentation)" From this it would lead me to believe that Indesign could be part of the problem, but I already have the correct preference settings checked.

Regarding the .Ai file, this was originally saved as a true .Ai file, and I have used it successfully for other apps, i.e., converted it into JPEG for my website. The other save options for my logo are: Illustrater EPS; Illustrator Template Ait; Adobe PDF; SVG Compressed; SVG.

 

[Eggles]

DO NOT <b>PASTE</b> graphics into ID!! You should always use File>Place. Try this with your AI file and see if it works OK.

 

[vectorhead1]

Thanks for the reply Eggles. In my original post above, I mentioned that several times I tried placing my logo into my brochure, each time it became a PDF file. It was only after this occurence that I tried alternate methods of inserting the logo; pasting has all kinds of disadvantages! I am starting to suspect that my software has a bug of some kind.

 

[carlow]

Hi,

.ai files are always placed as pdf. And it should be like that. Illustrator and PDF are the best of friends, you won't have any loss on your original ai file, it is just the way Illustrator works.

By placing the ai file you can't make any changes to the original.

The other method you mentioned is for altering an ai file in InDesign. If you wan't to change the vector information in InDesign you can with the options of the helpfile.

hope this helps
carlow

 

[vectorhead1]

Thanks Carlow,

It is very helpful to finally know that Ai files are ALWAYS placed as PDF, the help section doesn't talk about this fact. Unfortunately, in this particular case Illustrator and PDF are NOT the best of friends. My logo (for my own company) has much radial blurring, complex gradiants rasterizing, etc. About 200 hours put into it, 100 drafts, and it is JUST the way I want it. BUT, when it is placed into Indesign for the brochure, the PDF screws up all my hard work, the gradients become very sharply delineated, instead of the gradual blurring between colors, etc., etc. PDF greatly reduces the quality of my logo. And even when I paste with the correct preferences choosen, it still is pasted as a PDF. ARRGGHH! I am at the point where I will probably find a way to print the logo from a reduction directly right onto the brochures, and leave a blank spot in the Indesign layout, then run them through the printer again to print the rest of the brochure. This will be complicated and time-consuming. Unless someone has some brilliant trick for me to get the software to paste the logo non-PDF?? The correctly choosen preferences keep getting ignored, so I am at the end of the rope for Indesign to do its job correctly!

 

[jmgalvin]

If you Place (not paste) either an AI or EPS graphic in ID, it will remain in that format and be fully editable by clicking on the Edit Original from the flyout menu in the Links window. It is never recommended that images be pasted from one program into another.

When you Place an image, it is not actually in the ID doc. It is linked, like a web page. Only if you choose to Embed does it become part of the doc.

If things look bad when you place a graphic, make sure that you go to View menu and select High Quality under Display performance.

Sometimes, when graphics are very complicated with millions of colors (like photos and complicated gradients) things work better if rasterized and saved into something like tiff. If you do that, just make sure that you rasterize the thing at a high setting to keep letters sharp. You can also rasterize complex regions and keep things like text as text or vectors. That can be saved as eps, keeping both the raster and vector information. You can then place the eps.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[vectorhead1]

Thanks for the info JMGalvin. Carlow above states that Ai files are always placed as PDF. This seems to be the case here. Yes, in theory if you place an Ai document, it will remain in that format. It does not, not with my Indesign. It keeps placing as PDF. Even the LINK says it is a PDF file, which it is NOT, it was saved long ago as an Ai. I've tried resaving it as an Ai several times. Still, when I click on the links window containing the logo, and click on the logo link info, it shows this linked file to be a PDF! The logo of which I am speaking can be seen in its JPEG form at my website

http://www.primalqisynergy.com

It is the central very complex swirling energy ball which gets really screwed up when the Ai is converted into a PDF, I don't know why, but it happens.

The Indesign overprint preview looks degraged, even in highest resolution.; most importantly, it is identically degraded in the actual printing of my brochure. All I want is for my logo to look reasonably similar to the one on my web page, which of course is only about 7% of the original Ai file size but which turned out quite satisfactory for the net. But if I link to this highest possible quality JPEG in the Indesign brochure, the file is way too small, and the brochure printing is very unacceptable in quality.

Thanks for the rasterizing suggestion. I tried the suggestion on rasterizing the central energy ball, but with very poor results even at 300 dpi.

 

[jmgalvin]

Something is very wrong if you're showing pdf rather than AI. ID absolutely does not convert AI or anything else to pdf when it is Placed.

Simple test. make a basic Ai doc - just a colored box or something and save as an AI. Start a new ID doc. Insert a picxtuer box if you want. Choose Place from file menu and select the Ai doc. The Links window will show that it's an AI doc.

Again, never ever paste between the various Adobe apps.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[vectorhead1]

Thanks, the simple test idea is good, but here is the evidence that Indesign does place Ai as PDF: When I place the Ai logo, a window opens, labeled Place, which shows the Ai logo thumbnail and the show import options and replace selected item boxes, both of which I check. (The import option choosen is of course crop to bounding box) Then I click on open, and the next window which pops open with the preview is actually labeled : Place PDF !!! I've tried it a # of times and each time this window had the Place PDF label, though it was my Ai file I was trying to place. So perhaps Carlow above is correct that Indesign ALWAYS places Ai files as PDF?? I don't know, I am not a design professional, just trying to get this logo onto my brochure.

 

[carlow]

Hi,

After seeing your logo I think I know what is happening.

Your logo is very complex.In Illustrator if you have a very complex thing some parts maybe rasterized when saved.

In Illustrator go to the Menu "Effects" > Document Raster Effect settings.

probably they are set to 72 DPI, Make it higher, this will make the file bigger but the quality will be better.

If that doesn't help try expanding your ai file.

menu Object > Expand or Expand appearance.

All live effects will disappear, probably you wan't to save this under a different name. Try placing this file and seee what happens.

hope it helps
carlow