To begin the process of bringing a comp over from Illustrator, you need to create a new Catalyst project from your design comp. This is a fairly straightforward process, although it might be slow depending on the size and complexity of the design and your computer's resources.

Figure 20.4. The Importing Adobe Illustrator File dialog box and progress bar

Catalyst cannot import extremely large or complex Illustrator files. If you get an error message during the import that tells you the file has too many objects to be imported, you will need to return to Illustrator and break the file into smaller, separate files that can be imported (see Figure 20.5).

Figure 20.5. The error message displayed if an Illustrator design is too complex

The Importing Adobe Illustrator File dialog box may update during import informing you that your artwork contains a large number of bitmap or vector graphics and that you may want to consider optimizing them (see Figure 20.6). This process is discussed later in this chapter. In addition, a dialog box may appear when you complete the import process informing you of problems that occurred (Figure 20.7).

Often, this occurs when your Illustrator design uses Illustrator features such as Live Paint or Live Trace, or when text could not be preserved as editable objects. These issues will rarely affect your work as you build the project in Catalyst. If this dialog box appears, simply click OK.

Figure 20.6. The Optimized Graphics dialog box

Figure 20.7. A dialog box after your import informs you problems have occurred

Once your file is imported into Catalyst, you will want to check the Layers panel and ensure that the artwork is organized the way you want. Ideally, this will be done in Illustrator, but in dealing with large or complex files, it can be easy to forget to rename layers or organize them into groups, so you will likely need to do at least some of that work in Catalyst.

Rename layers

Layers and layer groups will be imported from directly from Illustrator. Just as in Illustrator, you can double-click a layer name to rename it (see Figure 20.8).

1. Click the small arrow to the left of a layer group to expand it and examine its sublayers.

2. Double-click a layer you want to rename.

3. Type a new name and press Enter.

Figure 20.8. Renaming a layer in Catalyst

Note

Renaming a layer in Catalyst has no effect on the layer's name in Illustrator, as the files are not linked.

Create new layers

You can create new layers in Catalyst if you discover the need for a group that was not created in Illustrator.

1. Click the Create New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel. This creates a new layer at the top of the layers panel (see Figure 20.9).

   

   Figure 20.9. A newly created layer

   Note

   New layers are always added at the top of the Layers panel, regardless of the layer you currently have selected.

2. Double-click the new layer and type a new name.

3. Drag existing layers or groups onto the new layer to move those elements into the layer (see Figure 20.10).

Figure 20.10. Adding content to a new layer

Creating new sublayers

Layers in Catalyst are top-level items and are placed at the top of the layer stack. If you want to create a new layer within an existing layer, you need to use the Create New Sublayer button.

1. Click the layer into which you want to add a sublayer.

2. Click the Create New Sublayer button. A new sublayer appears (see Figure 20.11).

3. Drag existing layers or layer groups onto the new layer to place them in the new sublayer (see Figure 20.12).

Figure 20.11. A newly created sublayer

Figure 20.12. Adding existing elements to the layer

Deleting layers

Occasionally, you may encounter situations where Illustrator creates layers that add unnecessary complexity to your project. These layers can be deleted.

1. Drag a sublayer's content to another sublayer.

2. Click the sublayer.

3. Click the Delete button in the bottom of the layer panel (see Figure 20.13).

Figure 20.13. Deleting a layer

Removing unneeded groups

Almost all artwork from Illustrator will be in a group, which can, like unneeded layers, add complexity to your project. If you remove all of a group's contents, the group is deleted automatically (see Figure 20.14).

Figure 20.14. Removing a group by moving its contents to a different sublayer

Should you change your mind about the size or location of artwork once you have imported a design into Catalyst, you can use its drawing tools to make the needed changes without having to go back to Illustrator.

Moving artwork

You may need to reposition artwork as the design of the project undergoes changes. In this case, the design initially had the featured magazines artistically placed at angles in a group, but the client has now requested that they be displayed in a linear fashion. This will allow you to convert them to a data list and eventually populate the list with data from a database.

1. Click the Select tool.

2. Click the item to be moved and drag it to a new location (see Figure 20.15).

3. Repeat Step 2 for any additional items to be moved.

Figure 20.15. Moving the magazines into their new positions

Rotating artwork

The magazines now need to be rotated so that they are straight.

1. Click the Select tool.

2. Click the object you want to rotate (see Figure 20.16).

3. Click the Rotate tool.

4. Click and drag near a corner of the object until you reach the desired rotation.

5. Repeat Steps 1 through 4 to rotate any additional objects.

Figure 20.16. Rotating the magazines

Resizing artwork

You can resize the artwork using either the Select or Direct Select tools in Catalyst. Prior to converting artwork to components or optimized graphics, the two tools will work the same.

1. Click the Select tool.

2. Click the object you want to resize.

3. Click and drag one of the control handles — the white squares along the edge of the object — to resize (see Figure 20.17). You can resize while maintaining the shape's proportions by holding the Shift key while you drag one of the corner handles.

Figure 20.17. Resizing an object in Catalyst

Most artwork that will not be converted to components should be converted to an optimized graphic. Complex artwork, particularly vector art created in Illustrator, requires significant overhead when rendered in Flash Player. Optimizing the graphic allows Catalyst to define it in such a way as to minimize this overhead.

Figure 20.18. Converting artwork to an optimized graphic

Once converted, optimized graphics are stored in your project's library. Therefore, if you want to reuse the graphic elsewhere in your application, you can simply drag it from the library to the artboard as needed.

In this chapter, you continued building the Magazines Direct Web application. You saw how to: