# From Illustrator to flash
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [July 22, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404 "2003-07-22T18:42:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Suiside360](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Suiside360)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/1 "2003-07-22T18:42:20Z")
What’s the best format to save a file in illustrator that you plan on importing into flash? I know swf is one but is there a better file type to use?
👁
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/2 "2003-07-22T18:56:42Z")
eps … but i usually just copy and paste while i have both programs open. depending on which version of illustrator and flash you have you’ll need to play with which version of eps you should save the file as. start at the top version and go lower until you find the one that works.
hope this helps
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/3 "2003-07-22T19:20:31Z")
copying and pasting takes away alot of my anchor points and changes the colors in my designs alot. So i try to stay away from that. There’s an even better format to use other than eps too. I’ve used it in the past but i just can’t remeber what it was. Thanks for your advice though.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/4 "2003-07-22T19:51:03Z")
anytime … if you remember or find out what that format is … lemme know. i’m interested =)
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/5 "2003-07-22T20:18:44Z")
.png is da pimp stuff.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/6 "2003-07-22T20:52:13Z")
Do you have freehand? Cause I was just faced with this issue last week, and was having much trouble with the Illustrator to Flash transistion.
If you do have Freehand, open your Illustrator file in freehand, then export it as an swf.
Then, open a new flash file and import the swf into Flash. Choose to keep your layers seperate and it should work well (it did for me)
If you do not have freehand, do the same process with Illustrator- export as swf out of Illustrator then import into Flash.
Also, if you are trying to save as ai or eps remember it has to be saved as 8.0 or below in order to bring it into Flash (though I still have had a lot of problems with that)
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/7 "2003-07-22T20:54:01Z")
Few people know about this, but Illustrator 9 is capable of exporting out as SWFs. I’m not sure about Illustrator 10, but in 9 you can. Just go to File \> Export and then under the drop down menu, select the format you want to export out as which is Flash swf.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/8 "2003-07-22T21:02:39Z")
yes you can do it in 10 too
:flower:
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/9 "2003-07-22T21:21:05Z")
I have always been able to import .ai version 6.0 files with no problem.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/10 "2003-07-22T21:28:09Z")
one more thing…make sure all your paths are closed in Illustrator.
Flash can get confused easy
:crazy: Good Luck
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/11 "2003-07-22T23:45:18Z")
yeah i have Freehand 10 and i just use that when i’m porting to flash. but you said illustrator so i didn’t think to mention it … good stuff in here =)
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/from-illustrator-to-flash/26404/12 "2003-07-23T13:34:14Z")
Freehand files (or swf exported from Freehand) seem to make the transition a little better. Of course cause it is mm.
And the Illustrator file opens fine in it…