Both Illustrator and InDesign are great tools. The more experience one has with with either of them, the more that that person wants to use their particular favorite application. That is only natural.
I use Illustrator in my job since we have to convert all types of files into Illustrator files due to the submission requirements of a service provider. The drawing capabilities are superior and one feature I like most when using type is the fact that Illustrator allows one to create point type, that is with the type tool selected, just click where you want to put the anchor point for your text object. With InDesign, one has to create a text frame. Both programs offer the ability to manually kern text by using the keyboard which I use all the time when creating artwork for our customers.
That being said, your client may have another purpose for some of the artwork that will be on the business card (web graphics or maybe the logo used on something that will not printed at your shop). Who knows what goes on in the mind of our customers, just have to give them what they want or they will go someplace where they can get it
I have tried Copy-n-pasting, it doesn't work for me. Could this because my InDesign is CS3 whereas my Illustrator is CS2?
I tried opening up in Illustrator a page with graphics from my InDesign-created pdf document and it opens ok. But I can't then find a way of editing this page in Illustrator.
I have to open all kinds of files and convert them to AI files. I am not sure (because I can't see your monitor and what is happening) why you can't edit your InDesign file.
In Illustrator, open your layers pallet and tell me if your InDesign file appears as a number of objects? or does it appear on the illustrator layers panel as images? Are you getting all kinds of clipping paths that tie the objects down to the page size of your original file? Things like that are important to determine.
If you see everything selected when you select one thing, go to your layers pallet and click on the disclosure triangles next to each group in the pallet. If you see sub layers called clipping paths, click on the layer target button (circular button toward the right side of the sub layer). You will see it become the active layer, and a little blue square will appear also showing this sub layer is selected. Look at your file and see if it is sized the same size as the page size of your converted file. If it is the same size as the page size of the original document, you more than likely can delete it. These clipping paths are generated and most times are a nuisance. These clipping paths keep me from being able to edit files for color, size and overall placement for the creation of our plates and mats.
After re-reading your last post I'm not sure if I have helped or not but I do hope that I have
I have tried Copy-n-pasting, it doesn't work for me. Could this because my InDesign is CS3 whereas my Illustrator is CS2?
Hmmm, not sure if there's an incompatibility issue there or not (sounds like it's possible). I've only ever done this with like versions and it has worked. Using CS4 now and can copy and paste from either program to the other.
I tried opening up in Illustrator a page with graphics from my InDesign-created pdf document and it opens ok. But I can't then find a way of editing this page in Illustrator.
How well do you know Illustrator? Sounds like you're trying to click on the content with the black arrow instead of the white arrow. Or you're not ungrouping, releasing masks, etc. Also, you're going to be limited to certain ways of editing. PDFs get formatted in its own little world that doesn't translate logically to AI as far as editing goes. You should be able to do a lot of things with that PDF in AI.
Second, I am an amateur but now quite experienced InDesign user as I have been using it to layout an academic book of 450 pages with 500+ illustrations. I have created many figs in InDesign, which I now realise is not the 'professional' route (I should have worked in AI for fig origination and ID for layout, but I didn't know that 4yrs ago!).
Third, I am a novice AI user. It is perfectly possible that I am not using it appropriately, perhaps in the ways you indicate, and perhaps also others. However, I have tried using both the black and white arrow selection tools, to no avail. Also, my test graphic from ID has just one layer, and the new doc I try to paste it into in AI has only one layer (set to be visible).
I think I had better get an AI manual and study it. Any recommendations?
I wasn't using Illustrator to edit PDF files, I was converting PDF files to Illustrator files because that is what my Service provider who makes our flexo mats requires. It is becoming increasingly more clear to me that to be a pre-press technician, one really has to be an alchemist, you know, someone who can turn crap into gold.
It is becoming increasingly more clear to me that to be a pre-press technician, one really has to be an alchemist, you know, someone who can turn crap into gold.
In our shop we refer to this as "using the magic fairy dust on the data". Too bad there is no such thing, someone could make a fortune with that.
Or with a device that let's me punch people in the face over a phone line or via TCP/IP
Granted the Illustrator (CS3) document can only have one color space. However, it will preserve images in different color spaces within the same document, even if they are different from the documents color space. See attached Acrobat preflight report from a PDF file made from Illustrator.
I am a flexo printer, so I naturally lean towards Illustrator as my program of choice. However, I build my instructional sheets in InDesign and I find for the cost the trapper in InDesign to be a very good deal, even to trap files that I have built in Illustrator.
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Originally Posted by Seeing2
