Package Multiple Files in Illustrator

Ai Toolbox can package multiple files at once, so all the linked files and fonts (including the nested projects) are collected into a single folder.

Consider it as File → Package on steroids.

Note: this tool is only available in the beta version of Ai Toolbox at the moment. Check the news page for the downloading links.

What’s Wrong with File → Package?

The built–in packaging tool in Illustrator allows processing of only one file at a time. It also doesn’t follow nested projects and doesn’t collect linked files and fonts there.

Ai Toolbox fixes that with Collect Resources tool available right next to the built–in one.

How to Package Multiple Files in Illustrator?

In order to use Ai Toolbox resource collector you need to load all the projects you want to package. There’s no need to load the dependent ones, just the main projects you want to collect. The rest will be discovered and collected automatically.

Once the projects are loaded, open the File menu and select Collect Resources… item there.

Ai Toolbox will quickly switch between the open projects in Illustrator and you will see the collection window.

Resource Collector Interface

You will see something like this:

The interface is pretty simple and consists of three panels (top to bottom):

• The “main” documents to collect;
• The linked resources found in the documents;
• The fonts used by the documents.

The top panel contains all the documents you opened in Illustrator. These are the “main” documents and will be collected to the output folder.

If you don’t need all of them, you can uncheck the ones you don’t need. See the “unneeded” document is unchecked above.

The middle panel contains all the linked artwork used by the main and nested projects. These files will be collected to the Linked subfolder of the output folder.

Finally, the bottom panel contains the list of fonts used by all the projects selected for collection, including the linked ones. The fonts are exported to the Fonts subfolder of the output folder.

Note: Adobe licensing terms don’t allow exporting of Creative Cloud fonts, so although they are displayed in the list, they are not exported. The fonts are supposed to be installed from the Cloud on demand.

Performing the Collection

Once you selected the projects to collect, click the Collect button at the bottom right corner of the window to proceed.

The window will close and you will switch back to Illustrator, where you will be asked to select a target folder for the files. Select the folder to start collection.

Ai Toolbox will be switching between Illustrator files for a few seconds to update and export them, then the exported folder window will pop up with the collection result. Done!

Note: Illustrator might display saving confirmation popups or saving option windows during collection. Consider confirming them to keep the collection going.

Collecting Nested Illustrator Projects

Ai Toolbox opens linked projects in AI and EPS formats and checks them for linked artwork and fonts, too. It gets interesting when one of the main projects depends on another.

In our example the outer.ai depends on inner.ai and both are selected for export on the screenshot above. Let’s uncheck the inner.ai and see what happens:

Note that the inner.ai was moved to the middle section, so it is now collected to the Linked folder.

Ai Toolbox makes sure that files are collected just once, doesn’t matter if this is a linked artwork or a part of the initial set of documents.

Notes

Collection Limitations

Ai Toolbox supports AI and EPS files. Other formats including the “Cloud” .aic files are not supported.

Names Collision Resolving

Ai Toolbox makes sure the files with same names from different folders are collected properly.

Say you have two linked files folder1/logo.ai and folder2/logo.ai. During the collection one of the files will be renamed to logo1.ai to avoid overwriting.

The same applies to the main projects and font files.

Existing Files

Ai Toolbox will overwrite existing files in the output folder.

Collecting another project into the same folder will likely damage the previously collected one.

Consider cleaning target folder before collection or collecting to empty folder to avoid any possible issues.

Missing Files

Collection stops if the linked art is missing in one of the projects.

Consider fixing the broken link, checking the project and collecting resources again.

Collection Errors

Ai Toolbox tries its best to handle all the possible errors in a safe manner, but if you get the error during the collection, here’s what to do:

1. Close all the currently open Illustrator documents without saving. They might have links to the output folder which is hardly what you need;
2. Do not trust the files in the output folder. They might link outside of the folder, so double–check that first;
3. Run Ai Toolbox installer and click the Logs button. A window will pop up. Collect all the log files from there and contact us with them.

Miss a Feature?

Contact us to discuss that :)

More Ai Toolbox Tutorials

Installation

• Installation — how to install the plugin;
• License Activation — how to activate the plugin with a license key.

Renaming and Selection

• Bulk Rename in Illustrator — rename multiple elements at once;
• Selecting Paths by Name — bulk selection by name in Illustrator;
• Select → Same → Font — selecting objects with the same font in Illustrator.

Text Operations

• Merging Texts in Illustrator — combine text elements, keeping lines intact;
• Dynamic Texts — add dynamic information to text elements in Illustrator.

Files Operations

• Collect Resources — package multiple files at once, including the nested ones.

Conical Labels

• Conical Label from Selection — making the label from the selected artwork;
• Conical Label from Artboard — making the label from the artboard content.

Color Bars

• Making Color Bars — how to make color bars in Illustrator in a few clicks;
• Color Bar Appearance — customizing color bars to display the data you need;
• Color Patches — color bars that display the inks you want;
• Reusing Color Bars — how to copy color bars to another project.

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