Vectordrawings

[louisek29025228]

Dear,

I use photoshop to color or indicate certain elements on my plans/sections. I do have the impression that when I save the photoshop file as PDF and paste it in InDesign the file has lost "Quality", the lines are no longer lines but they are pixeled. I have tried to color the drawings in illustrator but it doesn't work for me, I am not really very much advanced in illustrator and get stuck the first 5 minutes.

Is there a way to really maintain the vectors of my autocad drawing in photoshop?

Kind regards,

Louise

[Test Screen Name]

Is it not possible to colour in AutoCAD? That would be much preferable. Mixing apps for editing is often a nightmare.

Photoshop works in pixels, it is certainly the wrong tool. It is not a vector editor.

Illustrator may not be good for filling something not designed for filling, but it might be possible; steep learning curve.

Also, never PASTE graphics into InDesign, ever. Only PLACE.

[louisek29025228]

Yes it is possible, but autocad is sooo terribly slow at it!

And indeed illustrator doesn't color the drawing because they are not closed objects I assume...

Ok so I just continue as I was doing or learn to live with the loss of quality after editing in photoshop! Thank you!

[Test Screen Name]

The quality loss will depend on your settings when you rasterize in Photoshop. It's all about your effective resolution (based on final size you run at; please ask if you aren't sure what effective resolution is, it's vital). Work at high resolution (600 ppi, say) and the quality effect may be negligible. However, the file sizes will be so huge, that the slow working in AutoCAD becomes attractive.

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Hi Louise,

In Illustrator, you have two approaches:

1. Select the paths with the Selection tool and Cmd+J (or Object > Path > Join, or Ctrl+J on Windows)
2. Make the image into a Live Paint Group and you can color in the regions using the Live Paint tools.

As to your InDesign question, images should not be copied and pasted into InDesign or you will lose quality. They should be saved, then use File > Place to place a link to the high-res version to maintain the quality.

Illustrator is best for this, and we have an Illustrator forum: Illustrator

~ Jane