Transferring files between Photoshop and Illustrator

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
May 4, 2018
2 replies
489 views

Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding transferring a large file between Photoshop and Illustrator. I've been drawing a very large 1930s map on Illustrator and need to paint the sea in. I've opened the ai. file in Photoshop to do so and painted a section in. I've then saved the file as a psd. and reopened it in Illustrator to see if it is still editable (as i'm working for a designer who might change their mind on the map layout so I need it to remain editable.) I've tried painting the sea in on Illustrator using the blob brush tool but that's not as accurate and i'm worried that it's making my file massive. Can anyone suggest the best way going forward? Can I paint the sea on Photoshop and then just transfer that layer over to Illustrator? I've not had any experience transferring files between software and im a bit stuck!

Many thanks for all your help,

Lois

This topic has been closed for replies.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Apart from your second question, I'm wondering how exactly you are going to "paint the sea".

Are you looking for some plain filled areas? Or some nifty textures that would require using a raster application?

If the former, I would take a look at the Shape Builder tool or Live Paint, both available in recent versions of Illustrator.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Just paint the sea. In a separate file, just as large as you need it to be. Place this in your Illustrator file.

After opening in Photoshop and saving as whatever, your file will be no longer fully editable in Illustrator.

loisg72248825Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you so much for your quick reply! I've been playing around and that seems to be the best way that i've found too. Could I ask one other questions? On Illustrator when I move an object, it's jumping quite far away, so it's not lining up as it should be, if that makes sense? It's like it snapping to a particular object or part of the canvas. It was fine this morning and I haven't changed anything, as far as i'm aware.

Bill Silbert

Community Expert

It is also possible to paste the Illustrator file into Photoshop as a "Smart Object". Once there it exists on its own layer maintaining its transparency, its vector identity and its edibility. On a separate layer in the Photoshop file (saved as a PSD) you can create your "sea" as needed. If you need to edit the smart object you double-click on its icon in the layers panel and you will be instantly transported back to Illustrator so that you can edit as needed. After you save in Illustrator you click back into the Photoshop file and the smart object is automatically updated. The advantage of doing it this way is that the smart object becomes part of the PSD. It is one file that gives you all the editing options you need for both the raster and vector parts of it.

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