Place Linked and Place-Embed Multiple Images in Adobe Illustrator

There are three ways to open raster image in Adobe Illustrator: to use Open or Place commands from File menu or to drag images from Adobe Bridge (you can also drag images from Desktop). When opening images through Open command, raster image will always be embedded, when placing through Place command you can choose to link or embed. When it comes to place multiple images then Adobe Bridge is your friend. Run it in Compact Mode (my preferred method), select multiple images and drag them into Illustrator file.

Drag multiple raster images from Adobe Bridge in Illustrator

If images color profile does not much document profile you may see pop up window Paste Profile Mismatch where you can choose to Convert (preserve color appearance) or Don't convert (preserve color numbers). Adobe recommends to leave the document or imported color data as it is.

By default when you are dragging, images will be linked. Off course you can embed them anytime you want (select images and click Embed button in Options bar) but also to press Shift key while dragging, to place and embed them from once.

Bibliography:
Real World Adobe Illustrator CS5

Reference:
Illustrator / Importing artwork files

Products used in this tutorial: Adobe Illustrator CS5, Adobe Bridge 4