Photoshop clipping mask to Illustrator

[Veronica22551996i6fw]

I am trying to place a jpg with a clipping mask (created in photoshop) into illustrator. The clipping path is not coming over with the file. What am I missing?

[Monika Gause]

Saving it as a PSD is not an option?

[Veronica22551996i6fw]

It is an option but figured it was a good opportunity to learn something. It seems like it should be able to use that mask.

[Monika Gause]

I've just tried it.

The mask doesn't even get applied in Photoshop. It's in the JPG, but it doesn't show.

It works with PSDs so I would just go with that. When you embed the PSD in Illustrator, the path will be evailable in the Layers panel.

[Andy Tells Things]

How did you make the mask in Photoshop, and how exactly are you bringing it over to Illustrator?

[Veronica22551996i6fw]

I created a working path, saved, named and selected the path as a clipping path. Saved the file as a jpg file. Placed the image in Illustrator. When placing I selected show options but didn't get any options. 

[Andy Tells Things · Accepted solution]

Right. I believe this is a function that only works when bringing the JPEG to InDesign, Veronica. I suggest you just apply the mask to the image in Photoshop, save it as a PNG, and then bring it to Illustrator. Or just create the clipping mask straight in Illustrator.

[Veronica22551996i6fw]

Okay. Thanks. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something I should know. 🙂

[Andy Tells Things]

I don't work much with InDesign to be honest but that's the info I found. However, I just tested the steps you mentioned and it indeed opened the JPEG with the Clipping Mask perfectly in InDesign, and not in Illustrator, so I guess the info is accurate 😉

[Monika Gause]

A PNG cannot contain a clipping path.

I don't see any reason why you would want to apply a perfect path and then use the resolution dependent transparency instead of just saving this as a PSD and have the actual path in Illustrator. 

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

If you want a clipping path in Illustrator, use PSD, TIFF or PDF

[Crow Design]

You can place a TIF with a clipping path in Illustrator but, if your intention is to use a grayscale tif and recolor it with a spot color, you wont be able to. For that you need a flat image.