Quick Tip: Import an Entire Vector Illustration From Illustrator Into Photoshop
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Quick Tip: Import an Entire Vector Illustration From Illustrator Into Photoshop

on Nov 9th 2010 with 42 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4+
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 5 Minutes

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

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One of my biggest gripes about working with Illustrator and Photoshop is that there is no good way to bring in an entire vector illustration from Illustrator into Photoshop without losing all of your vector editing capabilities. Sure, there are some workarounds, such as copying and pasting your illustration one-by-one into Photoshop as smart objects, or by just grabbing the entire illustration and pasting it into Photoshop. Each method, however, has some major drawbacks.

While Adobe still hasn’t devised a method to do this the way we all expect, there is a way to do this that requires a bit of set up. Not too long ago I was watching an episode of Fridays With Mordy and learned a lot from his lesson but I realized that there was an easier way to do this. In today’s quick tip tutorial, I will demonstrate how to import an entire vector illustration from Illustrator into Photoshop. Let’s get started!

 
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Grant Friedman is a veteran blogger, social media addict, and design enthusiast. Grant has been blogging about the design industry since 2008 and is currently the editor of Psdtuts. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about Psdtuts, feel free to direct them to Grant's Twitter account.  

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  • 7

    You know… alot of us really dislike being required to suffer through an entire video to get a ‘quick’ tip. Videos are fine, sometimes. But they ought to come transcribed and/or with a written version for those of us who would prefer to read rather than watch.

    • http://isis-m.deviantart.com Isis

      I agree…specially because I’m not a native english speaker, so I can read easier than I can listen…

      By the way, you can change shape colors just using layer options, no? Someone can tell me why is so important to make compound patches before export? Thanks! =)

      • LM

        +1

    • http://nobledead.com JC Hendee

      I agree as well. The video tutorial craze has gotten out of hand. When a task takes only a handful of steps, written text is always better. In addition, if one needs to double check the steps, or even save them for off-line reference, text is easy to scan then having to jump forward through a video to find that one little we forgot.

  • ExtremRaym

    very useful !

  • http://kellenkrause.com Kellen

    ditto

  • http://moniestudios.com Monie

    Great tips. Now I learn a new tings.

  • aMs

    great stuff, exactly what I needed

  • Amir

    Does it work well also on CS3 version?

  • http://www.natehull.com Nate

    For some reason I expected to see some hassle free way to do this. The tutorial does not offer one.

    Love this site though.

  • cherryottis

    isn’t it easier to just copy and paste and double click on the smart object when you want to manipulate the elements then save and return to photoshop to see the changes?

    • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
      Author

      Not if you want to add texture, or add layer style effects, or edit it in any way in Photoshop. Double clicking will only allow you to edit in Illustrator.

  • http://prodigalconcepts.com/ rod rodriguez

    I’ve been searching for something like this for awhile now, glad you posted it here. cheers grant for the effort

  • http://www.kieru.com Rob

    Goodness- that was a long video for what amounted to being 45 seconds of tip. I do appreciate the tip though, I’ve been wondering how to properly export my Illustrator shapes for awhile now.

    • Emil

      I fully agree!
      Cut to the case!

  • Angela

    Very useful for a beginner like me. Thank you!

  • Zb

    is this workin only with simple shapes? if I add border this inst work

    • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
      Author

      It only works within the limitations of Photoshop. So if you add some crazy Illustrator effect that Photoshop doesn’t understand. Photoshop will likely ignore it.

      • HamZta

        Yeah but IF u transform your effects to Vector and u convert them now into a compound shape you ll get it in photoshop with the limitation that you cant customize the frame , border… glow what ever..

        But u ll still have it transformed. In the case of effects in vectors a smart object will be the best way to edit it. I dont know y he isnt showing the advantages of smart object… after your import you can edit it in illustration and after apple + s or strg + s your object refreshs in photoshop with the new attributes. It is wonderful for complex editorial. Ok it still needs a lot of your proccessor and ram but .. it works seamless.

      • http://psd.tutsplus.com/ Grant Friedman
        Author

        True. This trick won’t work in every situation but it’s a helpful one nonetheless.

  • Kevin

    If you use the selection tool you can select each shape and right click. “Make compound path” appears in the drop down menu. That would save you from having to navigate back and forth from the pathfinder pallet. Could save a few minutes on an already tedious process.

    This works in CS5, not sure of other versions.

    • Mark

      when objects overlap each other it doesn’t work, at least in cs3 is that the case.

  • http://www.tutorart.com/ Bruno Ricardo

    Nice.

    Very useful, thanks.

  • zangetsuBankai

    i still prefer copying & pasting the entire illustrator file as a smart object because its much cleaner in terms of organization because a folder with 30+ shapes

    • zangetsuBankai

      doesn’t really appeal to me i prefer 1 layer that i can go into where its isolated from everything else but nonetheless its great useful info to have

  • http://www.designpanoply.com/ Design Panoply

    Tips to speed up workflow are always welcomed, I also prefer to copy and paste elements to maintain complete control over each specific item.

  • neil

    I like snow and eggs.

  • http://www.ibrightdev.com Justin St. Germain

    i HATE screen-cast tuts, but, that was pretty useful for beginners. it took me a while to figure that out myself, so, im sure a lot of people will like it.

  • http://www.idesignit.co.il/ Elron

    Thats great!
    Thank you very much, really helpful.

  • http://www.moonboy.info/ MoonBoy

    It’s a good post and useful i can say, but I’d rather prefer it to be like text tutorial for the easiest ones. Or the best match would be good that each tutorial to have the the text explanation under the video with images like a standard ones. I know that are some steps in tutorial that are hard to explain in written form, here would video can help where it’s hard to explain . That’s my point

    BTW, Thank You

  • writersbloc

    Nice tip, but I wish you wouldn’t waste 3 minutes showing us methods we know don’t work. Anyone advanced enough to understand the benefits of this process already understands the limitations of the other workarounds.

    Great site, will continue to read often :)

  • neunen

    Whenever I export photoshop files from illustrator, l get missing horizontal lines of pixels here and there. mostly when transparency is involved. Does anyone else have this problem?

  • Aleksandar

    Isn’t it easier to just copy and paste object and then select “shape layer” in “Paste as” window ? I don’t see any difference…

  • musc

    many thanks for this well explained tutorial

    a appreciated especially the beginning of this tutorial, who show me well, why i would or not do copy & past (when we want change something maybe later)

    Very useful for a beginner like me. Thank you!

  • Alex

    Nice tip. It wasn’t that long as was commented earlier. I would suggest to make a simple Photoshop action to attach that Compound Shape. So you will have to do only 2 actions per layer insted of 3 ;-) Thanks

    PS: javascript has the power to do the whole task only once per file or even a pack of files.

  • http://www.tdpworkspace.org Violet

    Drag and drop is better.

  • http://kreviii.com kreviii

    so who knows how to make a script for converting all paths to compound paths to save some painful redundant work that was demonstrated ( and spared for us in the video ).

    I’d see that being quite a handy one.

  • http://www.lanotdesign.com Harvey

    Great tutorial!
    now how do we do it the other way around?

  • http://iej.com mhmm

    I agree. Could’ve just typed: make them compound shapes, the end. but that’d be just too easy. I also hate when people state exactly whats on the screen “you can see I have this file open right here in illustrator…” ya we see it… Good tip tho.

  • http://www.1ainternet.hr izrada stranica

    i agree Violet, drag and drop is easier, less time consuming also

  • Sergio

    Great tutorial. But I have a problem, I did the same, when I export a graphic with elements as paths from illustrator as a .psd format, and then i open it in photoshop, it appears just one layer with the graphic exported, not a file with the paths in every layer. But, when I convert every element in compound shape and then I open it in photoshop, it comes up the file with the shapes! it’s good, but i can’t see the same result when i don’t convert them as compound shape. it is just a flat image, a layer in photoshop, not a group of layers named “paths” thank you

  • Jackson

    Didn’t work for me. All objects are Compound shapes and I exported as a PSD. Opens in Photoshop CS6 as “layer 1″. Rasterized completely.