How many of you require Illustrator to InDesign conversion? Well there is the easy way and the hard way. We’re not particularly good at explaining the hard way so lets go with the easy!
Illustrator files are actually PDFs! We’re all going huh? Yes its a PDF file and it just contains Illustrator specific information; but its actually a PDF file. So, when you create an Illustrator file, simply save it with the “PDF” compatibility feature (which is normally on by default).
Now, what do you do with the Illustrator file that is PDF compatible? Thats kind of easy!
We all use PDF2ID, the PDF to Adobe InDesign plug-in to convert to fully editable InDesign file! How simple is it?
When you use PDF2ID on the Mac, make sure to choose All files when the “Open PDF/XPS file” window appears. You can the select any Illustrator file! For Windows, you have to do 1 simple thing. Rename the .ai file to “.pdf”. PDF2ID v4.5 will then recognize it! Is that it? Yes that’s it. PDF2ID converts the Illustrator file to a fully editable InDesign file doing its magic! Brilliant!
Just a final note (updated June 2016) – with PDF2ID v4.5 there is no need to rename the .ai to .pdf anymore! PDF2ID recognizes Illustrator files natively now! Excellent