You have the option to embed images into Adobe Illustrator or to link them. If you embed them, then your file will be large (a 500MB AI file is an everyday occurrence in my work). The other is to link to the image file, but if you hand the file off to another person, the linked images will not be stored with it. One option to is to have a central repository located on a network for images. All new images are placed there. This can sometimes be cumbersome not to have a copy of the image on your local machine–consider image manipulations and having to manage file versions centrally. This script solves the problem of collecting linked images for output. This script collects external image links into a single “Links” folder. You can then give that folder and the subsequent source file (AI) to another person and the external links will work.

Hopefully, you are not using Adobe Illustrator source files (AI) to pre-press print work, but if you are this will aid in collecting linked images for that purpose too.

Caveats

This script does not collect fonts or other files, only images. If your image is within an opacity mask this script will not be able to find it. Illustrator Package Script has been tested on Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe Illustrator CS3 only.

I did not write this script. This script was written by Pavel Rassadin. You can download the original source for this Illustrator Package Script from his website.