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NerdyDeeds
NerdyDeeds
Participant
December 31, 2023
Answered

Sorry, but what would possess you to deprecate the ability to export SVG from Photoshop?

  • December 31, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 619 views

Per: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/export-artboards-layers.html#discontinue-export-as-svg...

 

I have to ask: given the wide diversity of screen sizes, resolutions, and DPI's that creative professionals now have to produce for, why on earth would plan to do away with the LONE web-friendly vector format PS is capable of producing? It costs you nothing to leave it there, and you already have the functionality canned in other apps in the suite! 

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer D Fosse

    The problem is that Photoshop is not a vector application, and most users don't understand the difference. So you get all these SVGs with raster content. This causes problems everywhere else.

     

    SVG belongs in Illustrator, not Photoshop. But getting that toothpaste back in the tube is probably impossible.

     

     

    3 replies

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 1, 2024

    An aside: Bug Reports and Feature Requests posted here will register at Adobe (in some form) but otherwise this is essentially a user-Forum, so with Discussions one should not presume to talk to Adobe personnel (even though some Adobe employees do occasionally post on the Fora). 

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 31, 2023
    quote

    I have to ask: given the wide diversity of screen sizes, resolutions, and DPI's that creative professionals now have to produce for, why on earth would plan to do away with the LONE web-friendly vector format PS is capable of producing?

    By @NerdyDeeds

     

    That question sort of has the answer already embedded in it…

     

    If a very high value is placed on maintaining resolution independence to support “the wide diversity of screen sizes, resolutions, and DPI's that creative professionals now have to produce for” as you said, with the target output format being SVG, then it is required that those graphics be built as vector graphics, with a professional vector graphics toolset. But Photoshop tools are built around creating pixel graphics. Even though Photoshop does have tools for making paths and vector shape layers, those tools are far too awkward for producing vector graphics for SVG (compared to an application such as Illustrator).

     

    So logically, if the priority is to develop SVG vector graphics to support “the wide diversity of screen sizes, resolutions, and DPI's that creative professionals now have to produce for” then your professional advice should be to steer people away from Photoshop, and towards a proper application for vector graphics production. That would be true even if Photoshop had excellent support for SVG export, because Photoshop vector graphics tools would still be under-powered for deadline-driven production of vector web/mobile graphics.

     

    The role of Photoshop for  “the wide diversity of screen sizes, resolutions, and DPI's that creative professionals now have to produce for” is to come in when pixel graphics are needed, and it is definitely set up for that, including support for 1x/2x/3x resolutions. But those pixel graphics would not be exported as SVG, they’d be exported as PNG, JPEG, WebP, or (shudder) GIF, all of which Photoshop does support. So again, SVG is not the issue here.

      NerdyDeeds
      NerdyDeedsAuthor
      Participant
      May 12, 2024

      Photoshop. Is. Not. Exclusively. Raster.

       

      what do you think a shape is? Likewise paths, text elements, etc.  All vector. I have personally produced hundreds of ALL-VECTOR SVG's using exclusively Photoshop.

       

      I've been employed full-time as a front-end web guy since 1996 and I am speaking from intimate, personal experience, (from the POV of one who thinks illustrator has been going downhill since CS3). I started using Photoshop in version 2. Not CC2. Not CS2. TWO. When they first added COLOR to the program. I've personally written plug-ins to convert raster images to vector IN PHOTOSHOP.

       

      I'm NOT speculating here. 

       

      The only reason I can see for them to remove extant functionality that costs them virtually nothing to maintain - particularly since all vector elements inside PS are STORED IN MEMORY AS SVG CODE (as evidenced by simply looking at the pasteboard's contents after copying any vector element) - is to REQUIRE users to have a second application to perform the export (since I don't believe for a second they've recoded from scratch some faux-vector format for the totality of Photoshop. There's no advantage to doing so without need). That having been said, this literally amounts to them removing the menu option to prevent users accessing it. It's a money grab. Again. Some more. 

      D Fosse
      Community Expert
      D FosseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 12, 2024

      I know all that. My point is that most people don't. Most people think that saving as SVG makes it vector. We've seen a lot of them here.

       

      As a web developer, how many SVGs with raster content do you think you'd receive? And how happy would that make you?

        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
        Community Expert
        December 31, 2023

        The problem is that Photoshop is not a vector application, and most users don't understand the difference. So you get all these SVGs with raster content. This causes problems everywhere else.

         

        SVG belongs in Illustrator, not Photoshop. But getting that toothpaste back in the tube is probably impossible.

         

         

          NerdyDeeds
          NerdyDeedsAuthor
          Participant
          May 12, 2024
          quote

          The problem is that Photoshop is not a vector application, and most users don't understand the difference. So you get all these SVGs with raster content. This causes problems everywhere else.

           

          SVG belongs in Illustrator, not Photoshop. But getting that toothpaste back in the tube is probably impossible.

           

           


          By @D Fosse


          Nonsense. You get raster data if there is raster date on the layers being exported. I can code in SVG by hand, I'm well aware of the difference.

           

          Dump your background layer after you create your first shape. Bam. All-vector document.

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