Chanpory Rith
Feb 28, 2007
While Adobe remains deaf to years of pleading for true multiple-page support in Illustrator, they’ve slipped in a little-known feature you might have missed. Adobe Illustrator CS2 now lets you save multiple-page PDFs.
Here’s how to do it in three easy steps:
1. Set the document size
Since Illustrator doesn’t have true pages, you’ll have to cheat by using a larger than normal document size and turning on page tiling.
First, create a document size that’s larger than a single page:
- Go to File in the menubar and choose Document Setup.
- Multiply the width of a single page by the total number of pages you want. Set the width to this number. For example, if you want a final PDF document of five letter-sized (8.5 x 11 inches) pages, set the Width to 42.5 inches and the Height to 11 inches.
2. Turn page tiling on
Next, turn on page tiling so you can print and save multiple pages. For some weird reason, you can no longer do this in the Document Setup window. It’s now in the Print window:
- Go to File in the menubar and choose Print.
- Choose Setup.
- In the Tiling pulldown, choose Tile Full Pages and click Done.
- While viewing the main document window, go to View in the menubar and choose Show Page Tiling (if it’s not already on).
3. Save as PDF
After laying out your pages, the final step is to Save it as a multi-page PDF. It’s easier than you think:
- Go to File in the menubar and choose Save As.
- In the Format pulldown, choose Adobe PDF (pdf) and click Save. A new window of PDF options will appear.
- In the new window, check Create Multi-page PDF from Page Tiles and click Save PDF.
In a few moments, Illustrator will generate a multi-page PDF. That’s all there is to it.
For more robust multi-page features such as master pages and automatic page numbering, try Hot Door’s MultiPage plug-in. It’ll set you back 100 bucks, but might be your only choice until Adobe opens its ears.
Update (March 2): Someone has kindly put up a Spanish translation. Check it out!
61 Comments
gabe
7:20 pm
forgive me for being daft, but why not just use Adobe InDesign or just compile your Illustrator files into PDFs using Acrobat?
chanpory
9:42 pm
Gabe, good questions. I’d say it depends all on how you use Illustrator and InDesign. If you do a lot of drawing or illustration, Illustrator gives you a lot more flexibility and control with paths, symbols, and gradients. For example, I probably wouldn’t do logo explorations in InDesign.
You could use Acrobat to concatenate separate Illustrator files, but that means having a lot of single files. It can get cumbersome if you have a lot of pages.
Ncus
1:49 am
Hey, nice Tips. I will try it out later on.
I am barely use InDesign :-)
Timbo
1:54 am
very curious piece of information,Thank you for highlighting such a fact. I guess the only use i would have for it would be if i was creating an illustration heavy booklet and the client wanted to make changes to everything up until production. The thought of which scares the hell out of me!!
Duncan
8:52 am
I SO wish I knew about that roughly 48 hours ago. There I was, saving single pages of my portfolio as PDF’s and then mucking about in Acrobat until 3am.
Good post as always. Coffee calls…
Jeff
9:23 am
If you set up your file in CS1 with the same page tiling. Go to the print menu, click on the printer button, you will find a button labeled PDF, this will then prompt a save dialog box. Resume as you would print the document. This should print a multi-page document when print all is selected. Easy, breezy.
chanpory
7:54 pm
Hey Jeff, thanks for the tip about Mac OS X’s built-in PDF print feature. I’m not sure if Windows XP or Vista has that built-in, so PC users with Illustrator CS1 might be out of luck.
vampiro
12:10 pm
I lost track of this option when Ilustrator become CS. Never saw it again and I really miss it cause is really helpfull. I just tough that Adobe had remove it and I never figure it why cause as I tell is very clever to have multi pages on one single document, even if you have In desing… Is an extra tool!. Thanks man for the tip… I’m already using it!
george
10:30 pm
it’s an interesting fix…but a fix none the less. if you’re going to make a multiple page document, the professional thing to do is use indesign or quark. people really need to stop designing EVERYTHING in one program. graphics/illustrations in illustrator. photos/imaging in photoshop. type and layout in indesign. you use all three apps together. that’s why they sell it as a suite. duh.
Jen
1:41 am
Sorry but it is not blanketly unprofessional to use Illustrator for multipage documents. You assume that everyone is making a brochure.
I create multipage Illustrator docs when I wear my information architect hat, especially lately as I’ve been working on sites using Ajax and need to show lots of detailed complex interactions. Going back and forth between InDesign and Illustrator would be really inefficient for what I do.
deniax
1:16 pm
Very usefull tip thanks alot!
keni
3:17 am
wow, ur post really help me alot. cos i always use ai to do pdf and combine it together with arobat. now is more easy way. btw, im using window XP. illustrator CS2
Stanton
7:18 pm
Is it possible to save these multi-page pdf’s with a full bleed? Is there a page tiling preference in Illustrator?
Stanton
7:32 pm
Never mind I figured it out. You have to save it once. Close it. Open the multi-page pdf in Illustrator and chose the page to edit, make the change, and click save not save as.
Thought I would add this just in case anyone else wanted to know.
Thanks a lot for the tip though.
poiter
3:41 pm
This is amazing. I would normally use InDesign for multipage, but it’s not allowed at my present company. Instead they only allow Quark5, which is really crap.
subin ck
4:18 am
It’s Wounderfull “BUT THER IS A BIG PROBLEM, IF WE ARE DOING ANY KIND OF FOR PRINTING PURPOSE, WE CANT GIVE THE BLEED ON HERE… IS THERE IS ANY WAY TO GET THE BLEED ALSO THEN ITS GREATE
Rogre
10:16 pm
chanpory, Timbo,
It is often very clumsy to use InDesign. I spent years doing Fortune 500 work in ads and POS with only two or three times a year needing anything beyond a flier; two or three times a year for the whole agency.
The clients always made changes up to print time, And InDesign and Quark are not very good at creative poster-like work. As Jen said “Going back and forth between InDesign and Illustrator would be really inefficient for what I do.” Also, it is hard to be efficient with InDesign using it so seldom.
You can set these pages up with the size to include bleeds.
James
2:51 am
I have a problem with this method, when I save the file with tiling it wont allow me to preserve editing capabilities, it’s either one or the other. So if I want to edit an object on one of the pages I can only open one page at a time, and when I try save (NOT “save as”) it says “an unknown error has occured”. o_O
pirateboy
3:41 am
help ! im using illustrator 10 on pc - any ideas how i can use your very insightful method?
leo
2:43 am
Hi there
Nice tip. I do a lot of pdf files using illustrator cs2 (windows xp) .. could any one please tell me what setting should i use in the PDF conversion window in illustrator to keep the file size low approx 1.5mb and at the same time have high resolution of the image maintained ( 300 dpi ) for printing purpose. I always end up having a huge file size of approx 5 - 8 mb. please advice.
Dino
1:18 am
Thanks. Really helped me a lot today. You saved my ass!
miyuki kimura
1:36 am
Hi, i need urgently to know if its possible to save a multi page pdf BUT with illus. CS 1. Actually the “multi page” option in the pdf option (when you’re saving) doesnt appear….
Bunny
7:05 am
Hi Stanton, Is there a way to full bleed all the pages of the multi page pdf in Illustrator CS2 without doing it one at a time? Would that mean I would have to open that particular page, adjust save, then re-open whole file to next page? Yikes?!!
This has been racking my brain.
I am waiting for InDesign & Acrobat reader software.. Have not used for a while, if the pages are dumped in there will it solve the problem?
Leo print to cute pdf writer in your print options.
Bunny
7:07 am
Oh BTW Leo not sure if that keeps your res.. oops sorry
Leo
4:04 am
Hi Bunny… i did not get it. I am not having any option called “Cute PDF writer” in my print option. From illustrator i choose Save as and then choose PDF format..
Bunny
10:10 pm
Leo, when you are in illustrator go to print, the drop down where you choose the actual printer has one called “cute PDF” writer, it will then ask you to save the file. This is for PC but I would imagine it would be the same for Mac?
Leo
12:35 am
Hi Bunny … thanks for your response. I checked on my illustrator cs2(windows) but could not get anything which says “cute PDF” writer. it has got adobe postscript file option.. but even if i choose to have that option it does not get selected…it goes back to my default printer. Thanks once again for your reponse.
Geoff Dodd - pdf
2:13 am
Thanks. I would just add that there are some small apps now available for win. that can do multi-page pdfs. GD.
Joanne
9:25 pm
This seemed to be such a great solution and it actually worked, until I looked at the PDF. It seems that all my clip masks had ‘released’. Any answers?
Dave
1:29 pm
Pirate boy and I have the same problem….anyone have any tips to use this for users of Illustrator 10? URGENT!!!!!
Joanne
2:04 pm
Hi Dave, I sort of solved it by placing a white box (same size as page) behind everything on each page, grouping everything on each page and then ‘bringing to front’ and ‘sending to back’ each page as required. It’s a pain, but it gave me the result I needed.
Dave
5:54 am
Joanne, Could you walk me through exactly what you did? Sorry for my ignorance, but it’s kind of a new thing for me. Thanks
Joi Wiffrie
1:24 pm
Dave, I assume you have a ‘multipage’ A4 document, so starting with your first ‘page’, create a box 210x297 and fill it with white. Send the box to the back of the page, then group everything on that page together, including the white box which is now at the back. Do the same with all your pages. Now if you have clip masks on all your pages that the invisible contents overlap both sides of the pages, this won’t work. eg. if the contents of the first page overlap the second, but there is nothing on the second that overlaps the first, then you need to click on the grouping of second page and bring it to the front. The idea is that the invisible contents of the clip mask on the first page will then be behind the white box on the second page and thus, hidden. Jo
Dave
1:34 pm
Rrrrriiiiigggghhhhht. With all due respect, did you miss the part where I said this particular process was a new one for me?
Joanne wiffrie
4:58 pm
Dave, Sorry I don’t have an hour to explain this step by step, so what if you just try rasterising whatever is in your clip masks at maximum resolution, making sure to tick transparent background before rasterising, this way, whatever is ‘invisible’ outside the clip mask will simply disappear. If you still need the art as it is, then copy the file before you do this. Jo.
Junior Motondo
3:38 am
Unfortunatley my office use CS1, hou would i save it as a multiple page pdf on AI cs1?
THIK
5:52 am
forgive my thikness but after i done; Create Multi-page PDF … how do i add more illustrator pages to my pdf… IM STUCK
joan
11:51 am
I am using illustrator 10 I need to prepare a 30 page report as a pdf document. Could you describe how I can do this? Thank you!
julie
10:45 am
this just saved my LIFE. thank you!!!
Jack
7:09 am
Hi, Sorry, may be I cant post a webaddress, so THIK, you can do that (Split, Merge) with GPL software, search in Google: “pdfsam” from Sourceforge, is a good tool, easy to use, and more important… FASTEST! Just try it… Good luck!
Dennis Wiffrie
4:22 am
As a person who ran a film bureau for 16 years and now builds complex automated workflows for publishing companys my 2 cents worth is, use multi page/layered Illustrator files at your peril. I personally hope Adobe NEVER allow multiple pages for Illustrator. Illustrator is exactly that, it is for Illustrations, if you need to create a multi-page document then use the correct tool for the job which is Indesign or Quark. You wouldn’t use a steak knife to cut a piece of timber, you’d use a saw.
Almaink
8:52 am
Anyone who does this and sends it to a print shop will not be a popular person. A better way to make multipage in Illy is to just use separate layers for each page. That way no page tiling is needed and you can even have master layers for common page elements.
Angela
7:55 pm
This was a wonderful post. I was looking for this months ago before I purchased MulitPage. At first I was happy with it but now it has crash my illustrator twice within a couple of hours and it corrupted my files. I’m glad I found this post. I use Illustrator for flyers/poster that are the same but one or two images need to be switched out. So I duplicate the first flyer/poster layer and make the change. The I set up the page tiling and send the multipage document to my client. You can’t duplicate a layer in inDesign. If you can then someone can post that info for me.
P.S inDesign is best for book and things of that sort.
um duh
1:54 pm
any way a multi-layered illustrator file can be saved so each layer is a separate pg in acrobat???? thanks.c
brian Radko
9:04 pm
I have a 10 page Illustrator file which I am printing to PDF so it creates a 10 page Acrobat file. Does anyone know how I can make Illustrator print these so each page is a seperate PDF document without printing each page individually?
Ping
9:01 pm
Argh!!! I followed your advice but when I reach the setup screen, the page tiling option is greyed out and I can’t select anything! Any idea why? :(
David
7:29 am
I have designed a 100 by 100 detailed street and road map of various counties in my area using illustrator. I wish to booklet this file in 8.5 by 11 pages. I currently use pagemaker, photoshop, and illustrator. can/will anyone help ?!!
David
8:34 am
okay I followed the instructions found here on page….I have pages based on the automatic tiling but how can I adjust the tiling to get the best out of the pages ?
Nik
6:10 am
blah, illustrator sucks! …i love my sweet old FreeHand, SO SIMPLE! and i’m so sad they killed it..
Loo
1:47 pm
What we all really need is a macro that runs the “print-to_PDF” per layer(s) and save it numerically. Like exporting layer in Photoshop to JPGs. That would make life easy.
tim Cramblet
2:37 pm
Great Article! you just expanded one of my most used programs kudos.
lbigbee
12:10 pm
This is great instruction, despite the criticism regarding printing. The usefulness of this applies to providing a PDF file for the Web or e-mail; I would not use a PDF created with this method or other for professional printed material. I would instead provide the original AI or an EPS for quality printing purposes. All that said, this method does not seem to be available for versions of CS3 and CS4. In CS3, the option for “Create Multi-page PDF from Page Tiles” is unavailable and in CS4, the option does not exist. One step forward and two steps back Adobe… unless I’m missing it and it’s hidden elsewhere in these “upgraded” versions.
Ravi
5:17 am
Hii Chanpory Rith, ts an awesome post….Thanku soo very mach. I had been trying the Google to trouble shoot my query of creating multiple paged pdf in Adobe illustrator, i went through most of the links but this particular post cleared most of my doubts. Thanku once again.
seziewinkle
4:05 pm
this post is rad but i am trying to save multiple illustrator files to email as a resume, not for printing. I have followed the steps and it all worked but when i open it up as a pdf in preview it is all one long page (3 A4 pages lined up one underneath the other). Is there any way of saving it so they open in preview as separate A4 pages to scroll through like it does with InDesign??? Can anyone help please??
dave wright
2:32 pm
thanks - this post is just what i needed!
Urban Legend
8:51 am
FOR CS4 USERS:
Use the artboard tool and make multiple artboards for multi page documents. Its the best and solves many of the issues of the old tile and print to pdf method. Watch out for overlaping objects from adjacent artboards popping up though…
This way you can use bleed etc as you normally would.
sarah
7:53 am
Can someone please help an non designer….I have to create multiple PDF’s and want to do this in Illustrator. I followed the step by step instructions and CS4 does not have the “Create Multi-page PDF from Page Tiles” to check when saving. Can someone give me the step by step as to how to do this and in what program. I would greatly appreciate this. I have been been having to take on some of this design at my work, and am struggling with this one…..thank you much. I appreciate all of your helpful posts.
A
5:27 am
does any one know if there is a possibility to create documents in illustrator which is more than 5m in width cause it appears to have limitiation .if not what software can do it?
thanks
slomokazi
3:26 am
siyabonga! (means thank you in isiZulu) you guys have just made my day. i love illustrator so much, but i still needs some of the functionalities that made us love freehand!
gary b.
3:53 pm
Hi I’m familar with using this feature though i do have a question.
Say i have a 10 page document set up in illustrator (via instructions above) and i want to print page 5 of 10 to my printer or PDF, how would i go about printing that specific page and not the whole document.
might want to feature the underline/ highlight feature in InDesign. Thanks. - GB :)
gary b.
4:02 pm
nvm, just figured it out, simply just change the range, i was expecting it to be a little more hidden. TY though :)