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Question

Any chance to import a saved selection from Photoshop into InDesign?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 29, 2022
4 replies
2176 views

Photoshop has the best selection tools and my text boxes are basically uniform areas in images, I just cut them out and replace them with the closest corresponding color.

So I need that selection because that will be my text box.

But I need to bring the selection over to Illustrator to create the text there because custom shaped text boxes require the envelope distort and other graphical text tools.

When I am done there, I need to move the text box over to InDesign to get a live text box for interactive e-books and blending in InDesign, without changing its shape and size, and with formatted text.

Is there any way to bring over a selection in between the apps if the images are linked and the same image is open?

How to

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Community Expert

Community Expert

Interestingly, the workflow you describe sounds a lot like the way Affinity software tries to work. But the truth is, you cannot get there from here in anyone's software.

What you don't realize you need is a good deal of pre-planning and understanding of how the big 3 softwares delegate and cooperate with each other.

You also need a fundamental understanding of pixels, resolution, and how physical and non-physical sizes relate to each other in each software.

One aspect of design work I have come to appreciate better over the years is the importance of planning a grid system. Couple that together with another complementary awareness: that aspect ratios are very important in planning picture sizes. Frames should exhibit a set ratio of height to width; not just random sizes.

Maybe this isn't directly helpful to your question today, but in big brush strokes; it kinda is.

Mike Witherell

Chris P. BaconAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the advice.

I totally dropped the grid system.

2 reasons:

1. the layout can be customly free hand painted, and you can make anything you "paint" an object

2. when using big images that cover the whole spread, text for example can be incorporated in uniform areas of the picture

my designs will be a blend of these 2.

Community Expert

Community Expert

Chris:

Any chance to import a saved selection from Photoshop into InDesign?

InDesign recognizes saved selections (properly called Alpha Channels) in placed images. You can use these alpha channels to create a clipping path to control transparency and as a custom text wrap. That's it.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Community Expert

Community Expert

Bart Van de Wiele's book, referenced above, covers this as one of many ways you can share assets between InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. It also has samples to work on.

Community Expert

Community Expert

My copy arrived last week! 😊

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Community Expert

Community Expert

Without seeing exactly what you're doing it's impossible to help you.

Your situation seems quite unique - but there might be a better workflow for you.

I've never come across such demand to jump between all apps.

If you let us know what you're doing and what you want to achieve we might be able to come up with a less complex workflow for you.

Chris P. BaconAuthor

Inspiring

What I want is to be able to use the unique features of all 3 apps (Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop), that are unique in 1 app and cannot be found in the others, for my magazine production, while having all elements of my magazines as live objects in all 3 apps. Because Adobe doesn't currently offer a way to move design over while maintaining all elements as live objects and selectable. For example the Free Hand Pen tool is in Photoshop, Ilustrator only has a Pen tool, and they are different etc..

Currently I am willing to move elements over one by one with copy pasting instead of exporting, because I don't have other choice.

This is a theoretical question that needs a theoretical answer so you do not need to see exactly what am I doing. But sorry I diverted from the question this question is actually about saved or not saved selections, not about objects.

The question is very clear read it, and it can have a yes or no as an answer, only. I either can move saved or unsaved selections from one app to the other, or I can't. That's what I am trying to find out.

Community Expert

Community Expert

I either can move saved or unsaved selections from one app to the other, or I can't.

You can’t. When you cut and paste there‘s no item link—you have to place in order to create links that can be updated

Community Expert

Community Expert

There are many ways to use elements of those three applications with each other—Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, In fact, Bart Van de Wiele, an Adobe Support Engineer and trainer, has just produced a brilliant Classroom in a Book called "Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign Collaboration and Workflow" which provides valuable informaton about how to do it.

However, the applications are very different, and there is not quick-and-easy way to move "selections" from one application to another. I highly recommend the book, an official training workbook (with files you can use) to appreciate the power tha allows you to move various elements betwen the applications. It's available from Adobe Press:

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign Collaboration and Workflow Classroom in a Book

Chris P. BaconAuthor

Inspiring

But for a major paid software something like this should be available on demand (for example here on their forums), not by buying books. I mean this is not Stack Overflow.

Chris P. BaconAuthor

Inspiring

or it's not open source...