Sending a Comp CC File to InDesign

One of the Adobe mobile creative apps I love the most (you can read about all of them here) is Comp CC. At its core, it’s a comping app that lets you mock up layouts for print and digital, then gives you the ability to finish working on the file in one of Adobe’s desktop applications.

I send most of my Comp layouts to InDesign, which works fairly well and fits nicely into my production workflow. I hear and read a lot about limitations with Comp and really high end things people have on their wishlists for the next version. But you have to keep in mind it’s called Comp, NOT InDesign for the iPad, even if that’s how reviewers were praising it on its initial release. So if the end game with Comp is to get it to a desktop app, how do the individual elements fare when a file is sent to InDesign on the desktop? Let’s see.

A comp layout created in Comp CC on the iPad.

A comp layout created in Comp CC on the iPad.

The same file in InDesign.

The same file in InDesign.

Vector Objects

Shapes created in Comp CC—either using the pre-fab App Shapes or those made with gestures—will survive the trip to InDesign as fully-editable vector shapes (unassigned frames). Comp lets you assign a stroke to any shape you create using the Stroke panel, which provides options for size, color, style, and opacity. When using the main Opacity panel, you are affecting the opacity of the fill only.

Once in InDesign, selecting one of the vector objects will reveal that all of the stroke and fill settings have remained intact. To check any opacity that was applied to a stroke or a fill, open InDesign’s FX panel, choose Transparency, then view the settings for stroke and fill individually.

A vector object with transparency assigned in Comp CC.

A vector object with transparency assigned in Comp CC.

The same vector object after export to InDesign.

The same vector object after export to InDesign.

Images

Images placed in Comp CC can come from a variety of places, including your Creative Cloud files, your device’s camera roll, the CC Market, and Adobe Stock. When the Comp file is sent to InDesign, any imported graphics will become embedded links that you can unembed, if you want. If you’ve placed a JPEG file from your camera roll or imported one of your Lightroom photos, it remains in JPEG format when it arrives in InDesign.

If you’ve placed an SVG file from the CC Marketplace, it becomes an embedded PDF file, which you can easily unembed and manipulate in Illustrator. You’ll get the same results if you placed a shape from the Adobe Capture app (using the Shapes panel, not the Graphics panel) into your Comp layout.

See also: Take Your Design Workflow Mobile with Adobe Capture CC

One of the most frustrating things I encountered when I first started using Comp was its handling of vector images created in the mobile app Illustrator Draw. The images from Draw are completely vector and remain so when exported directly from Draw to Illustrator. But if you place one of your Draw files into Comp by choosing Illustrator Draw from the My Files option in the Graphics panel, you’ll end up with a PNG file in InDesign. That PNG will be embedded, named with a long string of letters and numbers, and will need to be replaced manually using InDesign’s Links panel.

Recently, however, the fix for this long process came to me in a dream—or perhaps it snuck in with a recent Comp CC update—and it involves a quick trip to Illustrator Draw. In Draw, send your vector creation to Adobe Illustrator on the desktop. From Illustrator, select the item and add it to one of your CC Libraries. Back in Comp, instead of placing the graphic from your CC files, choose “My Libraries” at the top of the Graphics panel, and select the item from the proper library. Once you send the file to InDesign, you’ll notice the image is named with the name you assigned it in the library and that it’s an AI file, with all its wonderful vectors intact! The cloud icon indicates it’s being synced through Creative Cloud. You’ll also see this icon if you download a JPEG from Adobe Stock.

An Illustrator Draw graphic placed in Comp as a PNG and via a CC Library, once the Comp file is sent to InDesign.

An Illustrator Draw graphic placed in Comp as a PNG and via a CC Library, once the Comp file is sent to InDesign.

See also: Getting Started with CC Libraries

Text

Here’s something I don’t usually get to say, but it’s the case with Comp CC: Text is one place where everything just works and doesn’t seem to have any issues. Crazy, right? The type you lay out in Comp comes into InDesign intact. Font, size, leading all make it through unscathed. The reason is that you are limited to using Typekit fonts in your Comp CC layouts. And because those fonts are all being synced through Creative Cloud, they’re ready and waiting when your file gets to InDesign.

Sometimes, if you loaded a font from Typekit from within Comp, InDesign doesn’t register that right away. This happens frequently throughout my CC-linked workflow and logging out and back in to Creative Cloud often fixes any issues. But it’s good to know that if I choose a font, size, and color for my text in Comp, that it’s waiting for me when I send the file to InDesign. If you look at the Comp and InDesign screenshots at the top, you’ll see that the text flows differently when it gets to InDesign.

Colors

Color is another place that provides a fairly seamless transition from Comp to InDesign. Any text or vector shapes that have been assigned a color—whether through the color picker or via your custom themes—come in with that color. The RGB values translate exactly, but you’ll have to manually add colors to InDesign’s Swatches panel. You can also convert any of your colors to CMYK while you’re at it. If you’ve placed vector graphics from Illustrator Draw (via a CC Library) or Shapes, use the Eyedropper tool to sample the color, which will maintain its values. Sampling a placed PNG file with the Eyedropper tool brings mixed results.

The color values for the orange objects in Comp CC.

The color values for the orange objects in Comp CC.

The color values are the same in InDesign.

The color values are the same in InDesign.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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