Share artwork

When you need to send someone an Illustrator file, maybe so they can work on a file or print it, you need to package the file to ensure all the necessary components are sent with it. In this video, you'll explore packaging in Illustrator document using the Package command. You can open this practice file from the practice files for this tutorial if you want to follow along. When the practice file opens, you may see the Missing Fonts dialog box, since it uses an Adobe font. Access to the Adobe font library is included with your Adobe Creative Cloud membership. If you do see this dialog box, click Activate Fonts to fix the missing font. After the font is synced, you can click Close. If you place images into an Illustrator project and they're linked to the original file, you'll need to send the original image along with the Illustrator file you send someone. Select the Selection tool and click to select this image of water. Now you can tell that this image is linked to an image outside of Illustrator because in the Properties panel to the right, you can see Linked File at the top of the panel. If you apply a font to text that another user may not have on their machine, you'll need to send a copy of the font file along with the Illustrator file. You won't need to send any Adobe fonts you used in your project though because as you saw, they can be synced to your machine. Illustrator makes the process of gathering these linked elements easier with a command called Package. When you package a file, Illustrator creates a folder that contains a copy of the Illustrator document. Any necessary fonts, linked graphics like this image and a package report. The report is actually a text file, which includes information about the packaged files. Now in order to package this project, which uses an Adobe font in the linked image choose File, Package… If you're prompted to save the file, click Save. In the Package dialog box that opens, you can click this folder icon to choose where to create a folder for the packaged file. A folder will be created for you and you can change the name of the folder here. I'll simply remove the word folder. All the links in the document will be found and copied into the folder it creates. Any fonts used in this document will be copied and placed in the folder as well, except for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Adobe fonts. When another user opens this file, they'll be prompted to sync any Adobe fonts like you saw in the beginning. To package the files, click Package, then click OK. After the package is created, you can click Show Package to see the folder of content. In the folder, you'll see the copy of the Illustrator document and all of the linked files including the image. Packaging your Illustrator file ensures that when you send someone your Illustrator document, they have everything they need to edit or print it. Packaging is useful for sending your Illustrator files to a printer, a co-worker, or even as a way to collect all of the files used in an Illustrator document before archiving a project. 

When you package an Illustrator file and send it to someone, they'll need to have Illustrator on their machine to open the file. If your recipient doesn't have Illustrator or request that you send a PDF, you can save your Illustrator document as a PDF file. The PDF file will look like the original Illustrator document and can even be used if saved properly to print your Illustrator project. The person you send the PDF to will only need a free PDF reader to view it. Using an Illustrator document, you have or this practice file, you'll discover how to create a PDF from an Illustrator document. If you open this practice file, you may see the Missing Fonts dialog box, since this file uses an Adobe font. Access to the Adobe font library is included with your Adobe Creative Cloud membership. If you do see this dialog box, click Activate Fonts to fix the missing font. When the font is synced with your machine, you can click Close. To make sure you see the whole design, choose View, Fit All in Window. Let's save this document as a PDF. To save it as a PDF, choose File, Save As... In the Save As dialog box, choose Adobe PDF (pdf) as the file format. Change the name if you want, then click Save. In the Save Adobe PDF dialog box that appears, you can choose a preset from the Adobe PDF Preset menu at the top, depending on what the PDF is for. For instance, if you're going to post the PDF on a Website, you might want to choose the smallest file size option. You can also select a category from the list on the left and customize those specific options. In this case, you can leave all the options at their defaults and click Save PDF to save the file as a PDF. The PDF file is now open in Illustrator. Saving an Illustrator document as an Adobe PDF allows you to send your Illustrator documents to anyone with a free PDF reader. Now you can save your own documents as PDF and send them to others for viewing, printing, and a whole lot more. 

Whether you work on logos, web, or app designs, infographics, or other projects, at some point, you'll need to save the artwork you create in Illustrator in a file format such as JPG, PNG, or even SVG, or scalable vector graphics. Illustrator makes it easy to save in any of these formats and more using the Export for Screens command and the Asset Export panel. If you'd like to follow along, you can open this file from the practice files for this tutorial. A few of the individual birds in this poster need to be saved as graphics to be used on a website. That means that each of these groups needs to be saved by itself and in a format that's suitable for use on the web. To save artwork like this bird, you can export for screens. To export for screens, choose File, Export, Export for Screens… In the Export for Screens dialog box that opens, you can export either the Artboards in the document in formats like PNG, SVG, or even PDF, or you can also export the individual Assets. Click the Assets tab at the top and click the Asset Export Panel button to open the Asset Export panel. You can also open the Asset Export panel by going under the Window menu. You can drag the Asset Export panel by the title bar if you need to move it, then you can add individual assets in the document to the Asset Export panel by collecting them. To export this red bird and the orange bird, first make sure the Selection tool is selected. Click on the larger red bird, then press to Shift key and click the orange bird to select it as well. Drag either of those birds into the top part of the Asset Export panel. When a plus appears, release the mouse button. Each bird is now ready to be exported as a separate image. Click the orange bird thumbnail to select just that one. By selecting just this thumbnail, you're telling Illustrator you want to export just that selected artwork. To change the name of the image file you create, double-click the default name Asset 1 below the thumbnail and type Bird 1. You can then press Return or Enter to accept the change. With it selected, lower in the Asset Export panel, you'll see the formats you can export as. Click the Format menu, you may see a different format here other than as SVG or PNG and that’s okay. You can see all the formats you can export as - PNG, JPG, SVG, and PDF. The different JPG options refer to how much compression is applied to the exported image. In other words, JPG 100 is the biggest file size and the best-looking file whereas JPG 20 is the smallest file size but may look more compressed. Select SVG, which is suitable for a website with this type of graphic. SVG actually stands for scalable vector graphic, it's an image file that can be viewed at any size and still look great. Then to export the image, click Export… You can choose a location for the image and click Choose. The SVG image is now created. Now you know how to export individual assets from your Illustrator projects using the Asset Export panel. The next time you need to save a logo for a website or save icons for an app, for instance, you can use the Asset Expert panel to do so.