The Ugly Truth Behind PDFs and AIs, January 22nd, 2007
Written by David Blatner
Color me annoyed this morning. It?s not the weather. After all, it?s a typical beautiful day here on the outskirts of Seattle ? oppressive near-rain gray, just the way I like it. No, once again my frustration turns to InDesign. As you all know, I love InDesign, but love is like a magnet: It can repulse as quickly as it attracts. So forgive me a short IDSGOM, which may be educational to some readers.
The issue, you see, is the Adobe Illustrator format. Now, I was a Freehand man, myself. I loved Freehand dearly in the early ?90s. I even wrote a plug-in for Freehand 3.0 which (much) later evolved into an InDesign plug-in. But like many of us, I switched to Illustrator somewhere in the mid-90s. I can certainly understand why Adobe InDesign hasn?t historically opened Freehand files. But Illustrator? Illustrator is the grandpappy of Adobe?s happy family. Of course, InDesign can import Illustrator files. In fact, Adobe has spent countless marketing dollars telling the world that InDesign can open native Illustrator files.
But it?s not true.
InDesign cannot read the AI file format. It?s all been a sham. I can?t believe I fell for it, and I?m not sure if I?m more angry at Adobe for not allowing me to import AI files or at myself for having drunk the KoolAid and believed them without digging deeper.
But David, I hear you shouting, I import .AI files all the time! Yes, but InDesign isn?t reading the AI part? The only reason InDesign can import that file properly is that you have saved it with the Create PDF Compatible File checkbox turned on. InDesign is reading the PDF part, not the AI part!
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