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Elizabeth5C9F
Participant
November 7, 2023
Question

Text based projects in Photoshop and pixelation

  • November 7, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 640 views

I would like to create a piece of digital art with shapes and text to sell in standard sizes (11 x 14, 8 x 10, and 5 x 7) using Photoshop. While I know Illustrator or InDesign would be a far better choice, is it foolish to try to do that in Photoshop in terms of printing and pixelation? I have the skills to do what I want to do in Photoshop easily, but since it's not a vector, I'm worried about the end result for my customers. Is there a way to turn text to vectors in PS? I've turned it into a path to enlarge it, but it still seems pixelated compared to true vectors in Illustrator. Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

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    2 replies

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 8, 2023

    You should test the following yourself to make sure I didn’t miss something, but it might work out OK if you specifically save a copy of the file with the Format set to Photoshop PDF.

     

    In Photoshop PDF format, text layers are maintained as vector layers separate from the image layers, not rasterized to the Photoshop document image resolution.

     

    The way I tested was to place both a layered Photoshop file and a layered Photoshop PDF file in InDesign, and zoom in. The text layer in the layered Photoshop file pixelated as expected, but in the layered Photoshop PDF file, the text layer stayed sharp, continuously rasterized to the display resolution as a vector would.

     

    If you test this out and it works, you don’t need to make text un-editable by converting it to outlines.

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      Elizabeth5C9FAuthor
      Participant
      November 8, 2023

      This is an interesting answer because I would like to leave the text editable. Most customers are going to use a CVS or Walgreens type store to print the artwork, and they don't want to print PDF files except as documents on standard paper. Do you know whether converting the Photoshop PDF after the fact to a PNG, would cause the loss of additional quality?

      Kevin Stohlmeyer
      Community Expert
      Kevin StohlmeyerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 8, 2023

      @Elizabeth5C9F when selling templates or editable art - Photoshop is not the way to go.

      Illustrator or InDesign will keep the text as live text that can be edited but most Etsy sellers will include a flattened PDF with the fonts outlined (most users wont have the same fonts you use and you cannot embed them and sell) and also include a .eps or other editable format.

      Bojan Živković11378569
      Community Expert
      Bojan Živković11378569Community Expert
      Community Expert
      November 8, 2023

      Right click on Type layer then choose Convert to Shape. You are getting pixelated result at 100% view? Can you capture that and post here screenshot of entire window?

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