tut: ArcGIS to Illustrator

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Exporting Maps from ArcGIS (10.2) to Adobe Illustrator (CS6)

ArcMap has many cartographic tools and abilities. At the same time, a lot of professional cartography is done in a graphics package such as Adobe Illustrator (and/or an image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop). The main reason for using Adobe Illustrator is that it is a more robust graphics software package and provides tools and effects not available in ArcGIS. These allow you to access and manipulate each and every object on the page as a graphic object, even the individual vertices of the text letters. Many of these effects can be employed relatively simply to enhance your final map in ways that would be difficult (or impossible) in ArcMap. The steps below outline the process of exporting a map from ArcGIS for use in Adobe Illustrator.

There are two basic philosophies for combining ArcMap and Illustrator:

 - Some people attempt to do as much of the work as possible (up to 90%) in ArcMap, using Illustrator for only the final polishing of the map, or to get the map ready to be professionally printed
 - Others use ArcMap as little as possible (basically only to organize the data layers), doing as much as they can (up to 90%) in Illustrator

The decision on how much to use ArcMap vs. Illustrator (and/or Photoshop, etc.) depends both upon the map itself (what effects are desired) and the expertise of the cartographer (similar to ArcGIS, Adobe Illustrator is an extremely complex and somewhat intimidating piece of software). This page is intended for GIS students and thus assumes that Illustrator is fairly new to most of us. Thus we will create a simple map (in ArcMap where we are fairly comfortable) and then focus on the process of getting the map out of ArcMap and into Illustrator. Finally, we’ll look at a few simple ways to use Illustrator to enhance our maps (with links to more).

Note: In Illustrator lines are called “Paths” and polygons are called “Closed Paths.”

Detailed Steps for Exporting from ArcGIS to Adobe Illustrator

NOTE: These instructions are tailored for the ENVS-321 (Cartography) class, but should be generally applicable for anyone going from ArcGIS to Adobe Illustrator...

Next: Part I: Prepare and Export an ArcMap .mxd for Adobe Illustrator

         Part II: Open the Map with Adobe Illustrator

         Part III: Prepare the .ai File for Editing

         Part IV: Create a (Graphic) Mask Layer

         Part V: Editing Symbology and Text in Adobe Illustrator

         Part VI: Cartographic Effects Using Adobe Illustrator

         Part VII: Exporting and Printing from Adobe Illustrator

         Incorporating Raster Data (coming soon)

         Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts