How to create basic Adobe Illustrator files programatically?

Posted by Jonas Follesø on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Jonas Follesø
Published on 2008-09-22T04:00:55Z Indexed on 2010/05/06 14:18 UTC
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I need to create a really basic Adobe Illustrator file on the clipboard that I can paste in Adobe Illustrator or Expression Design. I'm looking for code samples on how to programaticaly generate Adobe Illustrator Files, preferably from C# or some other .NET language (but at the moment any language goes).

I have found the Adobe Illustrator 3 File Format documentation online but it's allot to digest for this simple scenario.

I don't want to depend on the actual Adobe Illustrator program (COM interop for instance) to generate my documents. Must be pure code.

The code is for an Expression Studio addin, and I need to be able to create something on the clipboard I can paste into Expression Design. After looking at the formats Expression Design puts on the clipboard when copying a basic shape I've concluded that ADOBE AI3 i the best one to use (the others are either rendered images, or cfXaml that you cannot paste INTO Design).

So based on this I can't use SWG which would probably been easier.

Another idea might be to use a PDF component as the AI and PDF format is supposed to be compatible? I'm also finding some references to a format called "Adobe Illustrator Clipboard Format" (AICB), but can't find allot of documentation about it.

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