Conversion problems from Coreldraw to Indesign

[Karel_J...@adobeforums.com]

From: Corel Draw X3
To: Indesign CS3

As we are migrating from Corel Draw to Indesign we came up to a very annoying situation. We have some designs in Coreldraw (streetmaps for example), drawn in vector format and layered with text.

When we want to import these content into Indesign, the designs are bitmapped and in very bad shape. Does anybody has some tips for me to convert them - it will be a one time conversion - not many things to convert but far too much for complete redesigning.

Would it help if we purchase Illustrator?

Thanks
Kajje

[Kenneth...@adobeforums.com]

You could save your drawings to EPS or PDF and Place them in Indesign,
but you're migrating from apples to oranges. CorelDraw is a drawing
program, with some layout capabilities. Indesign is a layout program,
with some drawing capabilities.

I would want to migrate my art to Illustrator, then put it together with
text in Indesign. Or just keep CorelDraw for the art, and put the art
together with text in Indesign.

--
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[Kenneth...@adobeforums.com]

BTW, how are you importing CDR into ID? I didn't think there was a
filter for it.

[Karel_J...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Kenneth,

1)
I get your point, but it is even worse than you imagine. Actually we are not migrating from apples to oranges, we used oranges to plant apples. We were using Coreldraw for designing a newspaper, and that is exactly what we want to change now by using Indesign.

2)
We tried many different ways, exporting into all possible vector based file formats. When I import them to -let's say- Flash, most of the conversion works. When I do a 'place' in Indesign the whole dump gets bitmapped.

Anyway I'll try to find a version of Illustrator.

Thanks for the help!
Kajje

[boblevine]

Did you try turning on high quality display? And again...how are you
going from Draw to InDesign? You can't copy/paste and you certainly
can't open the files.

Bob

[Karel_J...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Bob,

How I turn high quality display on? Is this necessary with vectorized objects anyway?

I admit we tried to copy and paste first, but after that we tried to export from Coreldraw into .eps .ai .wmf .emf .swf and placed them but all of them give either no either bitmapped result.

Thanks
Kajje

[Kenneth...@adobeforums.com]

> 2) We tried many different ways,

Hmmm. I'm going to take that to mean that you tried everything and
nothing worked so you're copying and pasting.

The reason nothing works is because you want one export/import format
that handles both text and art. You won't find one (at least one that
gets you something editable). Export your text as RTF and Place that in
Indesign. Export your art as EPS or PDF and Place that in Indesign, or
save it down to CDR 10, open it directly in Illustrator, save to AI and
Place in Indesign.

Either way, everything should be Placed in Indesign, not pasted. And if
it still looks bad, turn on High Quality Display, or print it, or Export
it to PDF.

[Silkr...@adobeforums.com]

Some formats will display as a raster image on screen while printing them (or exporting to pdf)will pass on the vector image.

[Karel_J...@adobeforums.com]

Splitted the text and drawings, saved as a Coreldraw 10 file, placed and redesigned it in Illustrator, imported it into Indesign and it worked fine. (also had to change the view to high quality view)

Thanks for all the tips!

[Kenneth...@adobeforums.com]

> export from Coreldraw into .eps .ai .wmf .emf .swf and placed them
> but all of them give either no either bitmapped result.

I can't vouch for SWF, and I would advise against using metafiles, but
the first four, if properly made, should give you vector images, at
least to the extent that they were already vectors. *Seeing* a good
image onscreen is going to require high quality display. *Printing* a
good image, for EPS and AI, is going to require a Postscript printer, or
taking the image through PDF.

The trouble with all of these is that they're graphic formats. Once
you're fully migrated to Indesign, you want text + graphics.

Since you now have Illustrator, you should be able to open your CDR
files directly in Illustrator. Depending on the complexity of the
drawings, you may be able to then copy and paste from Illustrator into
Indesign, but if you want the full range of Illustrator's capabilities,
you should save drawings as AI and Place them in Indesign.

[Karel_J...@adobeforums.com]

I start to wonder what on earth actually took us so long to migrate to this wonderfull program. Life already is much easier.

If I place an .ai first, and we change the .ai later, will it be updated in Indesign afterwards? I hear this was possible somehow.

[Kenneth...@adobeforums.com]

Update modified linked files in the Links palette. ID won't do it
automatically.

[boblevine]

If you select the AI file in the links panel and choose edit original,
Illustrator will launch and open the file. Change it, save it, return to
InDesign it will be updated automatically.

If you do it outside of ID, then Ken's post is correct.

Bob

[Peter...@adobeforums.com]

And if you do it with the ID file closed, ID will ask you if you want to update the next time you open.

[jong...@adobeforums.com]

And if you decide NOT update the link, you are going to have ... problems ...

InDesign needs the original file for printing and exporting to PDF; the only thing stored in the ID file is its bitmap preview. Contrary to what you might believe at the mo', it is not actually necessary to work in high quality mode. The file itself will not be altered by any view quality setting. However, if you cannot provide a valid link to it at print time, ID will roll its metaphorical eyes, complain a bit about missing files, and then print the preview bitmap.

It works the other way around as well: if you switch to HQ preview and images still look downsampled, pop up the links panel and check.