Well you might use any format aswell. But as eps is a prepress standart i use its for linking art to my layouts (vector & raster .eps) on every app i use.

Good luck!

Hi

As for a 'best' way... this is one of those special moments when Illustrator actually lets you do it in the 'best-way-for-you'.

Editable paste - You can Edit > Copy (Cmd/Ctrl + C) from Illustrator and Edit > Paste (Cmd/Ctrl + P) in InDesign.... yep. It's then editable in InDesign, if you're feeling ambitious.... you could do that. (I will say a word of caution about any Photographic images in the Illustrator file. If you're copying a combination of vector and raster from Illustrator and/or lots of 'effects' then I'd get a bit concerned it's asking InDesign to do a lot and therefore asking for problems.) You could be adding considerably to the file size/complexity of the InDesign file. >>>> The key thing about this is that you will end up up with an 'out-of-date' illustrator file because any changes you make in InDesign will not be updated back to the original Illustrator file. For this reason you might want to....

Place a Linked file To me it's how you want to manage the updates (also linking keeps the extra data of the illustration so size and complexity external, if you follow). You might want to develop a workflow which helps maintian one 'original' file as the one up-to-date version to minimse any confusion. You can export editable eps's now I beleive from Illustrator and editable PDF's or you can batten them down so that in order to edit the file, InDesign will insist you go through the Link panel (or perhaps right click) to edit the source file in Illustrator. Any changes done independantly in Illustrator will also be passed through to InDesign that way. You'll maybe need to do some testing as to which file export method you can batten down that way as I've not had to be that so disciplined as you perhaps need to be.

Which file format? As for the precise pros and cons in respect of choosing eps, over pdf, over ai... well I work in a number of design studios who suffer few if any printing issues as a result of placing eps, pdf, ai files directly into InDesign and then exporting them as PDF. I've not taken the time to get into the real techie differences between the formats because.. er... well, I've not needed to. PDF has certainly become the universal 'end' format to go out of the door to the print people so I tend to go for consistency "if in doubt" which means PDF all the way... :-) There may be some real technie nuance advantage to sticking with eps... I don't honestly know.

Hope this helps.

JK,

Do as Larry suggested: Save the AI file with PDF compatibility and place it in InDesign as a link.

If you copy/paste artwork that is above a certain size/complexity threshold (as maps would easily be), InDesign will present an alert advising you to do otherwise.

When you save an AI file with PDF compatibility, Illustrator actually writes two full versions of the artwork into the file: One as native AI constructs; the other as simplified PDF content. When you then Place that AI file into InDesign, it is the PDF content that is imported, not the native AI stuff. If you save the AI file without PDF compatibility, it won't import.

In principle, EPS similarly "dumbs down" the AI content to simpler constructs, but the constructs are not necessarily the same as PDF. There's nothing necessarily wrong with using EPS; but it's often considered antequated within an Adobe-only workflow. It (or legacy .ai format) may still be needed in workflows involving some non-Adobe apps. But since you're using (assumedly same-version) InDesign, either save the map as AI with PDF comatibility, or Save As a press-ready PDF. Place that in InDesign and deliver your finished InDesign project as press-ready PDF.

JET

FWIW, The InDesign equivalent of Quarks "collect for output" is "Package"

Your point about linked files and fonts not being packaged is valid.