Variable data, text and images in Adobe Illustrator CC

[@PrimoTutorials]

For those who are wondering how to create more useful filenames, like filenames according to your sheet. Go watch my new tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHjQn2Z4ha-be5Y

[@marinkojukic6498]

My filenames are somebodys else concern! :D

[@thepiyushkumar]

You've saved my life! Thanks to you I finished created 25000 of such files within a few days and without any errors!!

[@midorner]

Ok. Honestly, this was the most useful video on Illustrator I’ve seen in the past 10 years. Thank you champ!!

[@PrimoTutorials]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@sdscode]

this is one of the best video tutorials that I have ever seen related to data - graphics. It is very appreciated, thank you so much.

[@mleonardgy]

This is such a time saver and removes the likelihood of errors. I watched the video and was cursing you because it wasn't working - then I realized I clicked the wrong button when I was making the text dynamic. :D Good tutorial. Thanks

[@PrimoTutorials]

Always easy to blame the youtube guy haha

[@elliotbaker3757]

Back here again after several visits to say thank you! I have made 17,000 image mockups using this! Absolute game changer. Thank you

[@PrimoTutorials]

Wow thats a decent project. Glad to be of help!

[@XenoMorph-t9w]

Thanks a Lot! This save me a lot of time for my work! Now I can just set back an wait for the batch to finish 2000 cards that would've take me the whole day to manually type them. Thank you so much!

[@marinkojukic6498]

still come back to this tutorial after 2 years! very useful and informative use of variables!

[@AlbertoVerdugo-b5c]

x2

[@whatthevideos4599]

Out of 100 videos ! you are the MAN! such an amazing video simple and very understandable

[@scharyu]

Bro a pure genius. I had to make 250 named badges and instead of filling names manually, I need just a few minutes.

[@PrimoTutorials]

Thanks bro!

[@jasonwarren597]

Great tutorial. straight forward and no extra fluff. Much appreciated!!!

Mulțumim! Thank you!

[@kosmori9898]

You are my saviour. Thanks and cheers from Ukraine!

[@Don-xy8cy]

What a great tutorial. I wont need to look anywhere else for this topic, you explained it perfectly. Thank you.

[@chad5451]

Thanks!

[@andresdearmas2703]

Thank you very much! great explanation. One point: when linking the text to variables, it worked selecting the text with the text tool, not the textbox. Thanks for your help!

[@kieransimmer]

My problem as well, glad I came by this!

[@valeria_flores]

This is so helpful!!! I work with infographics all the time, and every few months they need to be updated with new data. This will help me save so much time, thank you!

[@PrimoTutorials]

You're welcome! Do you work with graphs as well? Making a new video on that subject soon.

[@valeria_flores]

@@PrimoTutorials Yes, I do actually! 🙂In that case, I'll subscribe and keep an eye open for that video. Thanks!

[@Rafa.mudo.]

wow man you saved me a solid hour of copy pasting names for an event's name tags haha, thanks a lot

[@geralddc]

Watched many on AI variables & multiple PDF saving, this was the BEST! Tq. You really save me hours of work!!!

[@tonnatang]

Accidentally found this video. It's very helpful. Thank you and please keep making more videos like this!

[@PrimoTutorials]

I will! Thanks

[@Jysq]

This helped me setting up QR for vendors on an event! Thank you so much!

[@PrimoTutorials]

What did you use to generate the qr?

[@ChrJahnsen]

Very well executed guide, my friend. Not too long and not too short.

[@reganrajan]

My illustrator CS3 does not have csv import. Only support XML. Converted the CSV to XML using online tool and the XML worked. Thank you for this video. It helped me alot. I can now save time on manual editing. ❤

[@senthisri4137]

Great Video! helped me creating a monthly Calendar with different variables. if you want to bulk delete all the imported datasets, you might indeed find that the default functionality only allows for deleting them one by one! So, if anyone want to delete them you can use script function.

[@renettahill2816]

Great video. You explained everything beautifully and was straight to the point. I greatly appreciate that marked your video in sections so I can go to exactly the part I may need at the time... Other vides are 10-15 minutes long and leave you confused. Thanks for posting awesome content.

[@halizanz]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! so helpful with my 500+ total of certificates!! :))))

[@intricately]

Perfect. Well explained and straightforward. Thank you.

[@DDILOOK-ig2md]

Sir. you saved my life. i almost f**ked up at my office!!! but you saved me. thank you so much!!!

[@M-cr5ek]

Thank you for the tutorial. My texts worked but the image just doesn't change, I did exactly what you instructed. image data column used: C:\Users\61432\Desktop\Icecream2 (no any space) could you advise anything wrong in this? Much appreciated.

[@jewelramos5677]

thank you so much!! Great tutorial, easy to follow and works like a charm!!

[@kristinchaumont1882]

AMAZING Tutorial! Thank you so much. Exactly what I needed for these custom bingo boards!

[@moustaphangom7433]

Tu es le meilleur Même moi qui ne comprend pas l'anglais. J'y suis arrivé Fink you @frome senegal🇸🇳

[@suhaibhassan9607]

Great tutorial. I have learnt a lot from this tutorial. I do appreciate your efforts. Keep it up!

[@TheWestinHoustonMedCenter]

THANK YOU for making this quick and simple!

[@lankathilina1053]

Amazing tutorial. You saved my hours of work. Thank you so much!!!

[@Rocky4u]

you brother have just earned another sbscriber. thank you so much

[@XxJakaboobooXx]

Hey great tutorial, but I'm only looking to replace 1 name and when I get to the point to load the variable library it only wants to open .XML file and not the .CSV files, help!

[@DataDrivenDustin]

Awesome - thanks for putting this together

[@howardhamilton3796]

Thanks a bunch, this saved me so much time, very easy to understand, I appreciate it.

[@andreabellini68]

Hi Sirs, if inside the variable data is there some "," commas I've errors during the import of the datas. The commas are necessary because are descriptions of a products (for ex.). Is there other ways to mantain the commas inside the text descriptions? Many thanks!

[@Antiloopraket]

use "discription, asdasd, asd" instead of just discription, asdasd, asd

[@DMH69]

Thank you for posting such important lesson.

[@SachinGMantoor]

thanks a lot coz of this tutorial in our company we got new project :-)

[@marianazuanetti8911]

thanks for this great video! It helped me a lot! Best regards from Brazil!

[@juliethkatherine2780]

Gracias desde COLOMBIA, me ahorraste un fds de trabajo te dejo el like

[@Luukelekuuk]

Hi! First of all thank you for this tutorial, really helped me out a lot. Right now I am working on Mac, so the folder location is not able to apply. Any idea on how to still link the images on a mac? Thanks in advance!

[@figNotpig]

You can use Dirlister to get list of name of your files in second. I also using Advanced Renamer when I have to remove the black spaces or any symbol in the file name.

[@fardeenidrishi8446]

Best video no doubt one-stop solution for variables

[@PrimoTutorials]

Thanks man!

[@KungFuXiongYouTube]

Thanks the tutorial is really helpful, but I would like to ask if there's a way to fix the image size problem? As seen in the video all the width of the flag are 1000px, but why when in Illustrator the whole size of the flag keep changing based on the height? Is the anyway to fix this? Thanks

[@PrimoTutorials]

You got multpile options to choose from as explained in the video!

[@djh3214]

the solution for "The incoming variable library is invalid" is by changing the ( ; ) to ( , ) in the SEPARATED LIST in windowns control panel language and region --- First change the decimal symbole from ( , ) to ( . ) and then the SEPARTED LIST

[@floy61]

Thanks Bro. :')

[@RiffHas]

for mac user ?

[@djh3214]

@@RiffHas this is for windows i don't know if it is the same with mac

[@killjoys7654]

you literally saved me so much time, thank you bro

[@djh3214]

@@killjoys7654 You're Welcome !

[@cristovomnunes]

Very good man, thanks for the content.

[@ohmyads3d]

Great info. At bottom left of your screen, how you added the 'Key to use' box?

[@PrimoTutorials]

Its a script with a .png around it.

[@augustszarins8636]

Hey tnx, I could not figure out the invalid library error, this works now!

[@mohamedmidomido]

many thanks for the fabulous efforts

[@SomeSayApple]

Hi! This looks so useful! Unfortunately, my data set isn't being imported. I get the same message as you at 5:56 but then... nothing happens. Not even an error message, the field for data sets just stays grayed out, empty. Any idea why this might be?

[@SomeSayApple]

I'm not sure how, but I think using the same Variable on multiple objects threw it off... Got it to work.

[@spanno6140]

for anyone that wants an image file instead of pdf, on the batch menu check "override action "Export" on the export folder to save different files, i didnt check and it was just replacing the same img file over and over :(

[@deddywirata]

you are right, I did not notice this, and as my batch consists of 100 different files, I need to click 100 times :(

[@yutikashindolkar9547]

This needs to be pinned to the top

[@joshuarileymagic]

should have read this! Spent the last few minutes trying to work out why it didn't work properly 😂

[@kayrice7584]

This tutorial is extremely helpful, thank you.

[@jedicat-0-0]

WoW! Amazing simple and quick!

[@iamhaseebaslam]

6:20 What if I want to set the size of some flags different than others? How can I do that independently without affecting others?

[@PrimoTutorials]

Create another variable image box which you can set to a different size.

[@walidben5952]

@@PrimoTutorials please can you explain more? i could not do it , i want to edit each variable with out the othrers , thanks.

[@Eeagli]

Thank you very much for your excellent tutorial. I found it really easy to follow and understand.

[@lauragalvez7011]

im having this issue: everytime i batch save after having donde everything else to the T, after the Illustrator finishes it's rundown through the datasets when i go to check there's only one PDF instead of the numer of files corresponding to the datasets created. why could it be?

[@alanschwarzlopez]

Perfect no BS tutorial

[@hanaflower3185]

Thank you so much. By the way, is there anyway to keep the image as vector still? (Not Jpg / Png). Thanks

[@sebastianmunoz3968]

so can you keep it as a vector? did you find the answer?

[@ondrej-senohrabek]

@@sebastianmunoz3968 you can use .eps

[@zmii-6238]

Use eps or svg

[@infographie]

That's nice, thanks for posting.

[@Spectre968]

That was a brilliant informative video. You saved me buddy. Thank you.

[@jrfalcao.distribuidora]

Hi! Thank you for this! I'm facing a problem tho. I'm getting a "The current values have not yet been captured, and will be discarded upon switching data sets" error everytime the batch tries to change the data set to save. It means i have to click "Yes" everytime it saves a new file. Am i missing something? Can you please assist with this?

[@FerdinandDivinagracia]

I'm importing text from csv file, how do we make font adjust size automatically to fit the text area in illustrator?

[@playon_media]

Thank you very much! you save my life, great tutorial and explaination. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@kellanrad]

Is there any way to do this where you duplicate an artboard instead of making a new file?

[@PrimoTutorials]

If you combine the seperate files and reopen the combined file you have seperate artboards

[@kellanrad]

@@PrimoTutorials I've tried an extension to combine Illustrator files (and a PDF version), and a script, and they ended up embedding the files which is unfortunately not what I'm looking for. Looking to keep the linked file linked. Do you have a way to do this? I have 105 different versions and doing it by hand my take a minute. Thanks!

[@wendygosdeck1280]

When I copy my path and paste into the Google Sheet, they do not paste as a blue link. Not linking to my files. I did the @ symbol. Is there another setting I need to change to ensure the files actually link to the sheet?

[@tommasobattistoni6381]

Is there a way to make the action trasform the test in outline and save as PDF?

[@dhamp15]

You saved me sooo much time, Thank you!

[@activemotionpictures]

Marvelous video! Thank you so much for sharing this!!

[@ivandimitrijevic6095]

This was incredibly helpful. Is there a way to save the file's title by one of the Varible fields? For example, for the title of the files to be the names of the countries from your spreadsheet?

[@ivandimitrijevic6095]

Also, can you have multyple textboxes pull the same column data? For example, I want the name from the column to be appied to multiple places in the file? Or do I have to have separate colums for every text field?

[@PrimoTutorials]

I have tried to find a way but there is no easy fix. Multiple boxes for the same data is possible. You can duplicate the variable data to another variable or use the same variable name.

[@ivandimitrijevic6095]

@@PrimoTutorials Thank you for the quick response. Nice work.

[@alesiagunko6626]

Great video! Thanks! You saved me so much time!

[@nguyentramyad2208]

Thank you a lot ! very very helpful

[@JigarVavadia]

Very helpful for creating batch Social Media Post.

[@DailyReminder313]

Thanks Bro ....... short and sweet explanation/.............

[@rs9130]

thanks bro. better than scripts i subbed

[@origamavolumeintelligente3174]

Very interesting tutorial, but I have a problem. When I insert the links in the excel table they are not linkable. Why? Thank you

[@PrimoTutorials]

Did you make sure you got the right path and used these: " "

[@johnTaylor9760]

Wow, what a great TUT thx a lot your awsome!

[@JamiltonMacedo]

To copy the flag paths, you just select all images, hold shift, right click and select Path Copy

[@PrimoTutorials]

While I was doing it i already thought that there must be a better way... thanks great tip

[@Spectre968]

Thanks for information, you also saved me :)

[@bethanybrown8871]

Can I charge object colors, a rectangle for example, within the design using hex color codes from a datasheet? I'm designing a card deck with different solid color backgrounds...

[@AnishKrish]

@primo Graphics. the incoming variable library is invalid error showing. I tried CSV in excel and google spreadsheet also

[@paulrozario5516]

Thank for the short and sweet explanation of this process. Helped me for a big personal work :) Is there any kind of data within the pdf that was made with variable data & .csv file which can be used to pull out a .csv from that pdf containing only the text data in the pdf in proper columns?

[@michaelswallace6814]

Great video, thank you for taking the time to make it!

[@harshafartale5775]

Thank you so much for this video!!..It was exactly what I wanted ❤️

[@sbkhan303]

What about the UniCode Text ? Its only print English and Number. No Arabic or Chineese data. Kindly correct me if i am wrong .

[@TWILLIEBILLIES]

perhaps you can use %20 to replace a space in longer pathnames?

[@sofyenalimi9337]

Many Thanks, it was very helpful 😀🙂

[@DigitalDesignDude]

Do the following if you want to make images scale to fit within the area of the original linked image regardless of aspect ratio: 1. Window Tab>Links 2. Select your linked image from the panel and from the top-right 3 dashes menu select "Placement Options" 3. Set the "preserve" option to "Fit" Hope that helps :)

[@kshkalla]

I am using this method to export +600 id badge pdf and i want the image to be embeded for print, how can this be done automatically?

[@Nick_NickH]

Hello, This is a great video; really informative. I have a quick question about variables which hopefully you may know the answer to! Do you know if you can use variables with multipage PDFs on Illustrator? At the moment I can only get variables to import single-page PDFs, it will not work with multipage ones? It just comes back with errors and does not import the file. Thanks.

[@PrimoTutorials]

Hi Nick, what do you mean exactly? You have a multiple artboard file containing variables that you trying to export to a pdf file?

[@Nick_NickH]

Hi@@PrimoTutorials thanks for your quick reply. We have a load of print-ready files (PDFs) for greetings cards which are two-sided and we want to add a QR code to the back of them. I did this using variables with our single-page print-ready files by creating a new illustrator document with one artboard. I.e. with Variable1 being the print-ready PDF file and Variable2 being the relevant QR code which we layed on top. We then used batch actions to auto-make and save all these files. I just wondered if something like this would be possible using variables but with our two-page PDFs. As at the moment when I try to apply the same principle, it just comes back with an error and will not import the two-page pdf using variables. Many thanks for your time in reading this. It is much appreciated. Nick.

[@PrimoTutorials]

I dont think its possible in that way. Maybe if you structure it differently and use variables to create the print ready files then I would see a possibility. So a base file, variables for different texts like names in the card and a pixelvariable for the qr > then export to pdf.

[@josieandjenks9735]

This is a great video, the issue I'm finding is that the text doesn't wrap and that the words overlap. Is there a way to make the font shrink to the box size? Or wrap automatically? Thanks

[@PrimoTutorials]

No the font will not shrink. The other option is to create a new variable in smaller font and put the longer texts in that variable.

[@sukhrajmomi5779]

MEN YOU SAVED ME THANK YOUUU

[@master13ird]

I APPRICIATED THIS VDO - THANK YOU

[@anonimcakep8837]

I use AI 2017, There is no option to choose csv file, just xml file. But if I use the xml file the system is error because the file is invalid, can you help?

[@PrimoTutorials]

There is another video on my channel on this subject which use a older technique. Try that.

[@kneegrow111]

This is a game changer. Thank you so much

[@anaszekri9758]

thanks you saved my time

[@tylerfallis3643]

Thanks for the video! Im the production manager at a sign shop. I've used variables in other software but bossman wants to stick with illlustrator. I"m looking to layout for example 50 6x6 signs on a 24 by 48 sheet. I've made it far enough in this video but am stuck trying to put the layouts on one page. Any Advice!??

[@PrimoTutorials]

We use Print Factory Layout for that. It can be done by illustrator but it is not the most easy way. To do it in illustrator you can open your combined file and use the distributing and allign panel to spread them over your 24x48 sheet.

[@yourhometv]

請問利用變數產出這麼多名片，該如何能快速在Illustrator編排成要印製的圖檔呢？假設每個名片只要印一張，整大張要印一百張每張都是不同人該如何排列？感謝