How to Use Adobe Illustrator Art in Photoshop

You may find the need for using Adobe Illustrator art within your Photoshop projects. You can export an Illustrator file using the Photoshop file format. Doing this lets the Illustrator file retain its layers, masks and transparency. Photoshop can open a file exported as a PSD file as it would any file.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. In Illustrator, set your clipboard preferences to copy as PDF and AICB. You can then copy your artwork in Illustrator, and paste it directly in Photoshop. The AICB option lets you preserve the appearance of the artwork or to copy the selection as a set of paths.

2. Export the illustration so that Photoshop can open it. Go to File, and then Export. In the dialog box, choose "Photoshop for the File Format," and click "OK."

3. Change your preferences in Photoshop so that you can copy the illustration and paste it directly, by going to "Edit," then "Preferences" and then "Files & Clipboard."

4. In the Preferences dialog box, select AICB with No Transparency Support. Select one of the AICB options. Click "OK." Copy all or just a part of an illustration, and then switch to Photoshop to paste it into a new image.

[StacyP]

on 10/21/2008 Thanks for sharing this! After 7 years, I've started playing around in Illustrator again. I had forgotten how much fun this program is. (Though, Photoshop will always be my #1 love.)