Open your spreadsheet.
Last updated on
Oct 27, 2025
Learn how to set up data source files in Adobe Illustrator to automate and streamline design personalization.
Prepare a data source file
Data source files should be saved in a comma-delimited (.csv) or Extensible Markup Language (.xml) format.
Set up your CSV source files
In a comma-delimited (.csv) file, records are separated by paragraph breaks, and fields are separated by commas or tabs. The data source file can also include text or paths that point to images on disk. Before importing a CSV file, do the following to let Illustrator identify the variable type.
Specify your data field name in the first row of your spreadsheet. Then, do the following:
- Type an “at” symbol (@) at the beginning of the data field name to insert text or paths referring to image files. The @ symbol is required only in the first line, subsequent lines should include the image paths.
- Similarly, at the beginning of the data field name, type a “percentage” symbol (%) for graphs and a "hashtag" symbol (#) for visibility.
- To define the visibility of an object, specify true or false for each data field.
Note
The data field names in your spreadsheet should not contain blank spaces. For example, you can specify the data field as Company_Name instead of Company Name.
(Windows) Example of image and graph references in the data source file
Name |
Age |
@Photos |
%Graphs |
#Visibility |
Bill Tucker |
36 |
C:\Photos\BillTucker.jpg |
C:\Photos\BillTucker.csv |
True |
Dat Nguyen |
53 |
C:\MyDocuments\dat.jpg |
C:\MyDocuments\dat.csv |
True |
Maria Ruiz |
26 |
C:\Photos\Ruiz.jpg |
C:\Photos\Ruiz.csv |
False |
(macOS) Example of image and graph references in the data source file
Name |
Age |
@Photos |
%Graphs |
#Visibility |
Bill Tucker |
36 |
/Users/photos/BillTucker.jpg |
/Users/photos/BillTucker.csv |
True |
Dat Nguyen |
53 |
/Users/family/photos/dat.jpg |
/Users/family/photos/dat.csv |
True |
Maria Ruiz |
26 |
/Users/alpha/photos/Ruiz.jpg |
/Users/alpha/photos/Ruiz.csv |
False |
Enter your data into the spreadsheet.
Do one of the following:
- Save spreadsheets created using the latest version of Microsoft Excel (2016 release) to the following file formats:
- CSV (Comma-delimited) (*.csv)
- CSV (MS-DOS) (*.csv)
- Save spreadsheets created using Apple Numbers to CSV format with Unicode (UTF-8) encoding.
Note
Currently, Illustrator supports CSV files exported in the formats mentioned above. Other CSV file formats, such as Mac Comma Separated (.csv), are not supported for data merge.
Prepare an XML file
Define a variable in your document.
Select the Data Set button in the Variables panel.
After you create the desired number of data sets, select Save Variable Library from the Variables panel menu to save them as an XML file. Specify the filename and location, and select Save.
Now, edit the XML file in a text editing application such as Notepad++ (Windows) or TextWrangler (macOS) to include your data sets in this file.
Select Load Variable Library from the Variables panel menu to import your XML file into Illustrator. Select the XML file and select Open.
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