Importing Illustrator documents into Framemaker

[Julie Batterbee]

Hi,

In the past I have been importing Illustator drawings as eps files into Framemaker, but the files are very large. When importing eps drawings, you only get the object area which is good. If I save the file as an Illustrator file and then import it into Framemaker I get the whole A4 page instead of just the image.

Is it possible to import just the ai image and not the whole page?

I appreciate any help you may have.

Thanks & Best Regards Julie

[Arnis Gubins]

Julie,

FM doesn't support native AI files for import. EPS is the only way to
go. Depending upon your version of AI file, FM is either treating the
.ai file as an EPS or as a PDF, neither of which is a proper
representation of the .ai file structure.

[mike kostich]

I don't know how the file sizes would compare but if you have Acrobat you could save your eps. as a PDF, and crop that PDF. The 'canvas size' of PDF's cropped in Acrobat can be as small as 6 mm (1/4 inch) square.
Try playing with the way you save your eps files, too-- 1-bit preview, opaque, IL 7 or 8 version--should all reduce the file size, I think.

Then there are the things you can do from FM, sizing your anchored frame...?

Good luck, best I could think of.

[Tim Murray]

Julie -- Yes, when you use an AI, you get whatever the page size is. One of my wish list items for Illustrator is a command to crop a page to the image.

[Mary Olson]

I import native Illustrator drawings (.ai) into FrameMaker. You can crop down the page by adjusting the artboard. Click File>Document Setup and adjust the width and height to just include the drawing and not the rest of the page. The drawback is if you change the artboard later, you have to do a "save as", overwriting previous drawing for FrameMaker to recognize the artboard change. This also may distort the imported drawing (if scale changes) and you'll have to reimport. However, it beats blurry eps's.

[Ian Burton]

Hello Mary,
I think there have been other threads about importing ai graphics in which it was stated that Frame cannot handle ai native format. I think you'll find that Frame turns your ai format illustrations into some other file format like PDF for use in Frame.

I would stick to EPS for the Illustrator/Frame exchange and simply reference the external file to avoid the problem of graphics file sizes bumping up FM file sizes. If the display time is a problem then turn of graphics display.

Incidently I have never seen a blurred EPS in a printed or PDF file from FM. Are you perhaps refering to a TIF header that's used to simply preview the EPS file on screen?
Cheers
Ian

[Jeroen Dekker]

For you power users out there, using our ps2vector software to batch convert EPS to MIF for FrameMaker
* will automatically crop the file to the image (if so desired, and you can set it to add any white space margin you choose),
* you'll always have the real vector artwork rendering on screen, in print and in PDF (no blurry previews),
* FrameMaker file sizes will generally be smaller once the document containing the MIF graphics is saved as binary .fm.

Oh and importing your vector graphics as MIF will enable you to edit them using the Frame drawing tools.

Jeroen Dekker
--
Square One - The Graphics Connection
Visit <http://www.square1.nl/index.htm>
jer...@square1.nl

[Tim Murray]

FM7 does import native AIs and they are nicer looking on screen. It's more steps than an EPS since you have to mess with the artboard size, but you might find it an acceptable tradeoff.

[Ian Burton]

Hello Tim,
Maybe this is a bad memory thing, but I thought I had seen a posting from Arnis definitively stating that FM did not have an AI filter. Just to check before I made my earlier posting, I imported, by reference, an AI file to an FM document. Yes, it worked, but when I checked object properties the "Facettes" (sorry that's French, I can't remember what the English dialog box says) were reported as PDF! In addition the AI file format is not listed in the file types (maybe that's just my installation). So does FM handle native AI file format or does it convert it to PDF for use in FM?

I expressed my point of view in another thread about importing from AI. That is, develop graphics in AI, save as EPS with AI code embedded. Import by reference. Result is quality visuals and no problems handing two separate files - one original source and a separate file for output purposes - and no problem about lost source file graphics, or sorting out artboard sizes. Only downside is large graphics files, but that was problem years ago - not really a today problem.

Just a personal choice, not a proposed "only way to go".
Cheers
Ian

[Arnis Gubins]

Tim,

>FM7 does import native AIs and they are nicer looking on screen.

That's purely by accident and not by design! The original AI format is
close to the EPS format that it works in many circumstances. The newer
(9 & 10) format are variants of the PDF format. As such, FM uses the
PDF conversion filter to create a temporary EPS for display and
output. It's my understanding that some advanced PS Level 3 features
are not properly supported this way.

The recommended way (according to Dov) to deal with AI drawings in FM
is to save as EPS from AI using opaque previews, Level 3 CMYK, include
fonts, no thumbnails.

[Tim Murray]

The what's new web page <http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/newfeatures.html> does mention: "Support for placing Adobe PDF 1.4 and native Adobe Illustrator® 9.0 and later graphics files."

However, you must select the option during save to include PDF compatibility. Also -- and I'm still testing this -- AI9 files seem to work a lot better than 10. I have V10 files that when brought into Frame appear to have no font info at all, but work just great in 9 ... even when saved with no fonts embedded!