Preserving vector shapes from Illustrator when going to Photoshop

[Ziplinski]

Is there a trick to having your vector shapes from illustrator import into Photoshop as (vector) shape layers?

I swear I used to be able to do it, but now it's not working. If I remember correctly, you had to keep your layers very simple (with now special Appearance settings, etc) but you could then Export from inside Illustrator to a PSD file (with Preserve editability checked) and when you opened the file in Photoshop you had all your vector shapes from Illustrator as Photoshop vector shape layers.  What I get now is all the shapes on separate layers, but they are all rasterized.

FWIW, I know that I can copy and paste paths via the clipboard into Photoshop and then choose to bring them in as Shape Layers, Smart Objects or raster images -- but I'm looking for something simple where I can convert and entire document at once.

Thanks

[ballyd]

Check out the tutorial by Justin Seeley at link below.

http://www.lynda.com/Illustrator-tutorials/Creative-Quick-Tips/117542-2.html

[Ziplinski]

Thanks, but I was trying to avoid having to copy and paste vectors manually... I was hoping there was a way to just have vectors automagically converted to shape layers in Photoshop when you opened the doc.

(But I was unaware of custom vector shapes in PS, so I did learn something 😉 )

[Kurt Gold]

Which version of Illustrator are you using? Which version of Photoshop?

Is a sample .ai file available?

[Larry G. Schneider]

I had no trouble getting both editable text and paths in Photoshop. Just be sure to turn on Write Layers and both checkboxes below that Maximum Editability and Preserve text editability

[elDudereno]

Larry, any chance we could get a screen shot?

[Larry G. Schneider]

Actually when I checked closer, what are listed as <Path> in PS are just the raster lines and you can add effects but not change the basic structure in PS. Sorry for the confusion. Copy/Paste as Smart Object seems the only way.

[Kurt Gold]

There may be other ways.

To check them a sample .ai file has to be provided.

[emil emil]

The only way to get a path from Illustrator to Photoshop is copy and paste. And to get it on a shape layer select Shape layer in the Paste options. This will create a new shape layer with the path using the current foreground color. But if when pasting with Path or Shape Layer options, you also have a path  selected on a shape layer in Photoshop then the path from Illustrator will be pasted in in the currently selected shape layer making a compound shape with the existing path/s.

Exporting to Photoshop rasterizes the paths with the selected resolution keeping their original appearance and Preserve Text Editability is available as an option if there is a text without appearance attributes.

[Kurt Gold]

The only way to get a path from Illustrator to Photoshop is copy and paste.

No, there are ways to export to .psd and preserve paths.

Depends on what you have. Therefore a sample .ai file has to be provided.

[emil emil]

Kurt, unless there is an external tool like a script or plugin, I don't see a possibility in Illustrator. I just tried a file with nothing else but a box with black fill and no stroke and it exported as raster. And I also tried it even with no fill and no stroke and I got an empty canvas and no path in PS. I can't think of any simpler test files.

[Monika Gause]

It needs to be a compound shape.

[emil emil]

Thanks Monika,

that worked

not sure if I will ever need it as smart objects are what I use all the time but it is good to know.

[Ziplinski]

Kurt,

I've tried CC and CS6. Here's a link to a sample AI file (which does not work for me). I've also tried only using compond paths.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnpdqjzaeh4efr0/shapeTest3.ai

[Monika Gause]

The file has compound paths, but not compound shapes.

Make compound shapes and it will work.

[dissidently]

how is that done, and what is the difference between a compound path and a compound shape?

[emil emil]

release the compound paths (select all and press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + 8)

then select the two red shapes and in the Pathfinder click Minus Front while holding the Alt key on your keyboard.

repeat for the green shapes.

In the Layer's panel examine the hierarchy of the objects you have now to understand the difference between Compound shapes and Compound paths.

[Monika Gause]

dissidently wrote:

how is that done, and what is the difference between a compound path and a compound shape?

That is explained in the manual.

[dissidently]

Given that Illustrator probably has not come with a manual since the 90's, care to be a bit more specific where it might be in this chaos: http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/topics.html

?

[Larry G. Schneider]

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6462a.html

[Monika Gause]

dissidently wrote:

Given that Illustrator probably has not come with a manual since the 90's, care to be a bit more specific where it might be in this chaos: http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/topics.html

?

the search phrease for Google is "Adobe illustrator help" + "what you need to know"

[dissidently]

Help files and their associated resources are very different to manuals. 

Tutorials are different to manuals.

Reference materials are different to manuals.

Yet Manuals might contain tutorials, help files, associated resrouces and reference materials. 

However the art of producing a manual seems to have been long forgotten at Adobe.

[Kurt Gold]

I do like printed manuals, but if you just follow the link you just provided and use the search input field to search for compound shapes you get a document that explains the main differences pretty well:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6462a.html

[dissidently]

Have you read that part of that document.

I just did.

At no point does it really explain what the differences are.  It instead talks about them individually.  And attempts, unscuccessfully to point out the superiority of one approach over another.

It does, in fact, use similar ideas with different words to describe the two different things.

Perhaps someone could attempt to abstract out the REAL differences between these THREE types of compound objects.  Surely you'll get a job re-writing Adobe's "documentation" because nobody is doing it right now.

[dissidently]

Perhaps you're all going to need some help, via an example, to help you see just how bad this documentation is:

"

Compound shapes

Compound shapes let you combine multiple objects and specify how you want each object to interact with the other objects. Compound shapes are more versatile than compound paths because they provide four kinds of interactions: add, subtract, intersect, and exclude. In addition, the underlying objects are not changed, so you can select each object within a compound shape to edit it or change its interaction mode."

"Compound shapes are more versatile than compound paths because they provide four kinds of interactions: add, subtract, intersect, and exclude." [missing is... THIS IS DIFFERENT IN THAT COMPOUND PATHS ONLY DO ....(fill in the truth, if you know it)]

So, what I'm gathering is that Compound Paths ONLY have Subtract, and its permanent... only it's not a new object, it's a compound object, for reasons that remain a mystery, since there's no ability to the objects separately.  Wouldn't it make more sense to collapse this compound path to a single object, somehow?