The Bridge Visual Link from Illustrator to Photoshop

How do you open an Illustrator (.ai) file in Photoshop?

First, why is this important? If you are an Adobe CC subscriber, with the $9.99 per month Photography program, you get the core desktop apps of Bridge, Camera Raw, Lightroom, and Photoshop. Illustrator doesn’t make that powerful list. If someone hands those subscribers an ai file they may think, “Huh? What do I do with this? I need to make this ai logo into a JPEG file.”

Next, there are a few ways of doing this. Even if you have the full CC subscription, Bridge can help you begin converting a huge Illustrator file into a manageably smaller Photoshop file with just one menu action.

If you have a bunch of Illustrator files, you probably need Bridge, anyway, to have the visual tools to identify which one(s) you need to open. Many users just double click on the file in the Content Panel. Don’t do that, for this use. Instead, once you are ready to select an ai file from Bridge’s Content Panel, use File > Open With and choose Photoshop from the submenu.

Photoshop launches and you are presented with a “Import PDF” interactive box. Before you think, “What? PDF?” the ai file format is basically the same as PDF for many good reasons, including this purpose. So use that box to make some choices specific to your project and feel a little more CC empowered from the experience, as you grow your Adobe skills.