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Part IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files layers.) This layer is locked (you can’t change anything on the layer); and the graphic is dimmed in the document after it is placed, making the graphic 50 percent lighter. Template layers also don’t print and aren’t included in the artwork when you use the Save for Web & Devices command. Template layers are especially useful when you plan to use the pixel-based image as a guide for tracing in Illustrator. 5. Choose to replace an already placed graphic or add the graphic as new. This check box option is available only after you place a graphic in the file and that graphic is selected. You have the option of replacing that graphic with the graphic that you’re about to place or bringing the new graphic in as a separate graphic. Just select the Replace check box to replace the selected graphic, or leave the check box clear to leave the selected graphic alone. 6. Click the Place button.
Deciding whether to link or embed If you’re just playing around to see how the program works, it doesn’t matter whether you link or embed. If you’re working on a production with tight deadlines and making rapid changes to your document and money is on the line, I recommend that you link whenever possible. Linking makes the chore of changing placed images much easier. When you embed something, it exists totally within a single Illustrator file: Your artwork is locked down. You can’t do anything to it other than move it, scale it (and other such transformations), or run a Photoshop filter/effect on it. That’s all, folks — and that isn’t much. You can’t edit your artwork in another application; because it’s embedded in Illustrator, it won’t respond to other applications. The term embedding is quite literal — it’s stuck in there. You can’t get your artwork out unless you pry it out with the Export command. (More on that in the section “Getting Files Out of Illustrator,” later in this chapter.) Here’s an example. You send a completed job to your service bureau, but it can’t be printed because your five pixel-based images are embedded — two in RGB (red, green, blue) mode and the rest in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). The images need to be in CMYK for the job to print properly. Illustrator can’t convert pixel data from RGB to CMYK. (Illustrator can only convert vector data.) You need to use Photoshop to convert the pixel images. If the images are linked, however, the folks at your service bureau can change them by opening the image in Photoshop, making the change, and then updating the link — a quick process that takes about a minute on a fast computer.
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