Use Illustrator or Photoshop files in XD

[KarenDeck]

I have created a lot of wireframes using Illustrator and Photoshop and would like to incorporate some of those graphics into XD. I don't see an easy way to do that. For example, I have a lot of vector images in Illustrator. I would love to cut and paste them, or 'place' them into XD. It appears the only files I can use are graphic (jpg, gif, png, etc) or text files. I would hate to have to create individual files for each vector.

[Dan Rodney]

This is an area that will hopefully this will improve in future versions of XD. In the meantime, here are some things to try:

• In Illustrator, copy something and then paste into XD.
• In Illustrator, save the file as SVG and then import it into XD.
• In Photoshop, right-click on a layer or group (Ctrl-click on Mac) and choose Copy SVG. Then paste into XD. Do not have high expectations for this though, it will fail on a lot of different types of layers.

[KarenDeck]

Thanks Dan. I copied something from Illustrator and tried to paste into XD and it wouldn't paste. I've found a work around of exporting Illustrator assets to a png and importing them into XD but that is a step that I would prefer not to take. It would be great to just cut/copy and paste like I can from Illustrator to Photoshop and vice versa.

[Dan Rodney]

I've copied and pasted from Illustrator CC 2017 into XD, so there must be something in your file that it doesn't like. Did you try saving it as SVG? You can use File > Export or File > Save As to create the SVG file. Both give slightly different code in case one doesn't work. File > Export is newer and more optimized code, although I don't know which XD would prefer.

[Peter_Flynn · Accepted solution]

Karen, are you on Windows?  If so, pasting SVG from PS/AI isn't supported there yet (but I think it will be in the near future -- keep an eye out!).  In the meantime, you can export to an SVG file from PS/AI, and then use the Import menu item in XD to bring it in.

Hope that helps!

- Peter