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Exporting SWF Files
The three Adobe® Illustrator® Export As options for exporting SWF files produce files that you can import into the Macromedia® Flash™ application. Learn more about exporting SWF files. |
View a QuickTime movie (MOV: 1.6M) |
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Exporting Layers to Photoshop
Export layered Illustrator files as Adobe Photoshop® (PSD). Select options that allow you to maintain the layer integrity, such as Point-type. You can then edit the layers and the type in Photoshop. However, you can't “round trip” text back to Illustrator. Learn more about exporting layers to Photoshop. |
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Using Illustrator with PDF
Illustrator now offers particular advantages to those working with Adobe Acrobat®. If you use Save As Adobe PDF, you can include the editable Illustrator artwork. You can then use Acrobat to add comments and interactive elements. Then, you can reopen the PDF file in Illustrator to make any changes. You won't see your added content; however, when you resave the document as PDF and reopen it in Acrobat, your content will still be there! Learn more about using Illustrator with PDF. |
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Creating Cropmarks
Creating cropmarks will automatically set the canvas size of a PSD file you export from Illustrator. Also, by making cropmarks the same size as the artboard, you can easily register the image after you've modified it in Photoshop. Just choose File: Place, select the image file, click OK, and then drag a corner until it snaps to a corner of the Artboard. Learn more about creating cropmarks. |
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More information about Exporting SWF Files
(Excerpted from The Illustrator 10 WOW! Book by Sharon Steuer.) |
Exporting a SWF animation
Once your artwork is complete, you can export the file as a draft or final animation that you can view in a browser or in the Flash player. To prepare your file for animation, first add as many layers as frames needed to show the motion sequence. Treating each layer as an animation frame, assemble the artwork for a particular pose or step in the motion sequence on each layer. Move from layer to layer, creating renditions of the character on each layer until the character has performed all of the poses or movements you want to preview. When you have completed all the layers, select File: Export. From the Format pop-up, select Macromedia Flash (SWF) and in the Format Options dialog, choose Export As: AI Layers to SWF Frames. If your animation will use a lot of frames, or will include complex motion sequences that require many intermediate poses or steps, create the final animation in Flash instead of in Illustrator. Flash's tweening commands automatically create many of the intermediate poses you would otherwise assemble manually in Illustrator.
Exporting a SWF file to import into Macromedia Flash
Another use of your artwork is to export it as an SWF file and then import the SWF into Flash to develop the finished animation. To export, choose File: Export and from the Format pop-up, choose Macromedia Flash (SWF). Then, in the Format Options dialog, choose the Export As option that saves the SWF in the format (single frame file, animation file, or multiple files) that you need.
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View a Total Training QuickTime movie to learn more about exporting SWF files
(MOV: 1.6M) |
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| More information about Using Illustrator with PDF and Other Programs |
 Illustrator, PDF, & Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Portable Document Format (PDF) is platform and application independent – this means the format allows easy transfer of files between different operating systems, such as Mac OS, Windows®, and even UNIX®, as well as between different applications.
Illustrator and Acrobat 5 share many features, including Overprint Preview, the transparency grid, and native PDF 1.4 support. To save your file for use in Acrobat, be sure that you enable the Create PDF Compatible File option in the Illustrator Native Format Options dialog that appears when you first Save your Illustrator file.
PDF files created by other programs can be edited in Illustrator, but you can only open and save one page at a time, and text that appears to be all in one flow or text box in the PDF may be broken up into multiple text boxes when opened in Illustrator.
Illustrator & Other Programs
The most important consideration when moving artwork between Illustrator and other programs is whether to move it as vectors or rasters. In general, artwork gets rasterized when you move it to another program, so knowing how to maintain your layer structure and move artwork as vectors is the complicated part. Another consideration is whether you're moving the artwork between two open programs on your desktop using Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop, or moving the artwork via a file format using Save, Save As, Save for Web, or Export.
Depending on the application you're dragging or pasting Illustrator objects into, you'll paste either paths or raster objects. In general, any program that supports PostScript® drag and drop behavior will accept Illustrator objects via Drag and Drop (or Copy and Paste). For Mac OS only, you need to be sure that the AICB (Adobe Illustrator ClipBoard) is selected in the Files & Clipboard panel of the Preferences dialog at the time you copy the objects between AI and another application.
When you are dragging and dropping, your Illustrator art will automatically be rasterized at the same physical size, or pixel-per-inch ratio, that you have specified in the raster-based program to which you're dragging the art.
You can Save (via Save, Save As, or Save for Web) or Export your Illustrator artwork to many formats, including: Photoshop (PSD), PDF, EPS, SVG, SWF, TIFF, PICT, GIF, JPEG, and PNG. Knowing what file formats your other application supports and the type of information (vector, raster, layers, paths) you want to bring from Illustrator into the other program will help you determine which format to use. See the Illustrator User Guide for detailed information about these file formats.
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| More information about Using Illustrator and Photoshop |
 Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop 7.0
The creative possibilities for using Illustrator and Photoshop together are endless. With every release, the symbiosis between the programs grows; e.g., most transparency settings can be kept live between Illustrator and Photoshop.
When moving artwork between Illustrator and Photoshop, the main issue is whether to move the artwork as vectors or rasters. By default, artwork that you move from Illustrator to Photoshop using Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop gets rasterized. The trick is to know when and how to move vector artwork without having it rasterized. Moving artwork via a file format is more straightforward because Illustrator can open and export Photoshop PSD files.
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| More information about Creating Cropmarks |
 Creating “cropmarks,” then “trim marks”
Create a rectangle that defines a cropping area, and choose Object: Cropmarks: Make. Cropmarks are visible in Illustrator but become invisible when placed into another program (such as QuarkXPress or Adobe PageMaker®) except that they will reappear if you position objects beyond the cropmarks. To remove cropmarks, either choose Object: Cropmarks: Release, or make a new rectangle and again choose Object: Cropmarks: Make. Or create always-visible Trim Marks by selecting any object (a rectangle is not required) and choosing Filter: Create: Trim Marks. Files can contain multiple trim marks.
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Tips are excerpted from the Illustrator 10 WOW! Book, published by Peachpit Press. Movies are provided by Total Training, Inc. |
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