importing ill to indesign > best practice?

[irishgrizzly]

I'm working in CS2, importing artwork from Ill to Indesign. What's the best way to import? Ideally I'd like to copy and paste basic objects (not text). When I do this I get an invisible bounding box like a frame. Ungrouping doesn't fix this. Should I just be saving as eps and placing. I'd prefer to copy/paste.

 

[JasonElise1983]

In Illustrator and InDesign check your clipboard settings. I can't look at mine now, but if you mess with how it handles the clipboard, it won't give you the bounding box. It will give you a nice peice of Vector art in InDesign. I do this a lot....but i will say it's bad practice sometimes. It's a nice feature and makes some things easier (like changing colors) but at the same time if you have update that element any, you have to re paste them all.

-JE

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

I like placing AI files better than copy/pasting because, if necessary, you can open them back up in Illustrator and edit them and they will automatically update. You can just drag the file from Bridge or the Finder onto your InDesign layout and they will place themselves.

If you really want to paste, you don't need to save it in Illustrator at all. Just copy your paths in AI and paste them in ID, or drag them from you AI window to your ID one.

Here is a good discussion of both ways of doing things.

 

[jerryrock]

Using the InDesign "Place" command (command D) will allow you to select the type of crop on your imported image.

 

[jonG]

I think it is always best to save as (EPS my usual format from AI or PSD) and place in Indesign. Like they said you have control over the image in the bounding box and have control of updating links. If you are going to be sending the files to a real printer you must do it this way. It may be easier to just copy paste from another program for quick mock-ups but in the long you'll have to do it the right way. Plus if you paste an image in you'll have no link record and will not show in your links. Its great to copy/paste in type at least.