Can I unembed an image file embedded in Illustrator and save to desktop?

[D***@adobeforums.com]

(Illustrator CS3)

Hello there.

Is it possible to unembed an image file embedded in Illustrator and save it to my desktop? I've lost the original JPEG, was relieved to find I'd embedded it in an Illustrator file, would like to extract it for use elsewhere, but can't figure out how!

Many thanks for any advice,
Gill

[S***@adobeforums.com]

You can't un-embed, but there are several things you CAN do.
For example save your Illy file as eps or pdf and open it in Photoshop. If you use pdf remember to have the artboard the same size as the image, otherwise you will get white margins.
Or you can copy the image, make a new Photoshop file and paste.
In both cases Photoshop will prompt you as to colour mode and image size. You will have to fill in the blanks.
Then just re-save you Photoshop file in a suitable format and you can place it into Illy again.

If the image has been scaled in Illy, find out by how much by double-clicking on its link palette icon. Calculate how much you need to scale it back to its original size (100 divided by the percentage figure that comes up) and enter the resulting figure in the Scale dialogue box.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

There might be another way an it might lead to a new feature.

I you make an artboard around the art and choose to have the artboard fit the art and keep it active and then export as a psd, tiff, save it as a pdf or eps or what ever you wish to export it as and then delete the embedded image and then bring that art board into focus that is full screen and keep it active and then place the exported image you will now have the file placed in the exact same place as before but now you have the option to link it.

When Illustrator places a file it usually centers it in any artboard that is in focus that is the in the dominant view but by creating an artboard in a position you want an image to be and bringing it into focus you can now place an image in a particular position as long as you know the size of the image so you know how big to make the artboard it would now be nice to have a fit art to artboard command…well in the case of a raster image that might not be the wisest method.

This might lead to a better way of placing images in AI.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

The best way to unemebed images in illustrator is to save the file as
Illustrator Document with PDF Compatibility On, then open this PDF from
Photoshop. In photoshop you have the choice to open the images from the
pdf or rasterize the whole document artboard. Choose Images. All the
image in that documnet will open with their correct resolution and
unscaled. Save to disk and relink from the illustrator document. That
works most of the time. The only exception is some bitmap images.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

JC the export to psd works the same way as if you open it in Photoshop except you do not have to open it in Photoshop you just export it and you end up with the same options. Except it is simplified in the export. You get to choose the resolution in both, the color space etc.

The artboard method gives you the option to then stay focused on the artboard and immediately replace the file as a linked file without closing the document or refocusing the document window to a photoshop document.

The artboards I have found have more possibilities then one might have thought and may be the basis of curing a lot of ills of AI's placement and export woes.

try it and see what I mean.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Wade, when you export to PSD, you have to decide which resolution and
color mode to pick. When you open in photoshop an native illustrator
file (with PDF Compatibility) Photoshop extract that information for
you. Using export to PSD you will introduce some down or up sampling in
some way.

[Scott Falkner]

My method: Save as PDF with no downsampling and ZIP compression. Open the PDF in Photoshop and select Images, not Pages, then open any embedded images you want.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

True enough, however if the image is smaller then it still does you no good in psd and if it has been rescaled in AI then you want it a the right resolution anyway so here is the opportunity of doing it right and you get it back in the same exactly position.

I think it is a very good way and it can be the source of a tool to extract images and for linking. Also a good technique if you have rescaled images down to now get them back i the right resolution.

I think this has potential and can save a lot of work.

I like what I see have a great day.

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Hello everyone,

Many thanks for your advice and support, so helpful!
I chose JCs way, which I could understand most easily and it seems to have worked fine.

How curious that you can put on image in an .ai file and not simply extract it, like you can do in InDesign! I think Illustrator needs to see a shrink about her clingy attachment problems!

:-)
Gill

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Gill, having the ability to extract embeded images to disk, or be able
to edit them in Photoshop have been a long standing request from many
peoples. Please, fill a request for it yourself.

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

[G***@adobeforums.com]

Indeed.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

Come to think of it did we not at one time all follow JC on this issue in some kind of movement in the past?

I think you went further then just unembedding was the feature also for replacing the file with the extracted image as a linked image as well?

[D***@adobeforums.com]

It's been great to read everyone's comments on this, thanks. I've extracted my file by exporting as a pdf and opening in a 300 ppi rez Photoshop then saving the photoshop doc. So now I have a psd that I imported into InDesign. I got a strange message when I was saving my InDesign doc, saying it couldn't read a JPG which may be in the wrong format. It might be an eroneous message, or could it be something to do with the extracted .ai image?

I've got the heebeejeebies that my extracted image is going to be low rez, or faulty in some way. Once I've saved the Photoshop doc, is that a raster psd pure and simple now, or is there still some buried .ai/pdf element in it?

Thanks for any de-heebeejeebeefication.
Gill

[W***@adobeforums.com]

I think you should simply either go to File Export and either export it s a tiff, psd or jpeg directly out of Illustrator and place that in InDesign. I don't see why you need so many steps and different formats to do such a simple task.

File>Export>(Choose the format) select the image export to a location then place it in the InDesign document.

I would use a tiff if I were placing a file in InDesign anyway.

[b***@adobeforums.com]

I know this is an old thread, but thought I'd add this for the record:

Scoop, which is a plug in that packages files from Illustrator, will "unembed" images. I believe they end up at the size they were used in the Illustrator file, and with a new file name.

<http://www.worker72a.com/72a_Pages/CS3_Plug-ins.htm>

[M***@adobeforums.com]

<http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2008/11/technique-unembedding-images.html>

:) Mordy

[j***@adobeforums.com]

besides Scoop and Photoshop, you can also open your PDF-compatible Illustrator document in Acrobat Pro and save all the images out to separate files. Photoshop is good for picking off one image at a time, Scoop and Acrobat are good for extracting ALL images at one time.

[J***@adobeforums.com]

Great tip, JC! Extracting embedded images from Illustrator has always been painful. I also filed the feature request as you suggested :)