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PSD files to Illustrator
I have created banners in Photoshop for a design. My document is 300dpi/CMYK at 30″x80″. The file is huge obviously and I need to provide the artwork as an Illustrator file for a printer. I know you can place your PSD file in Illustrator and you can open it directly from within…but my two questions are:
1) How do I convert text layers to paths? Do I need to do this in Pshop beforehand or will importing the file do it automatically? If so, will it preserve effects (like glows on text) when imported?
2) Do I have to set my doc settings in Illustrator to 30″x80″ or does it matter? I am trying to avoid having a huge file since I need to post it online. I know Illustrator allows for scalability but I’m not sure how if I need to have my doc settings reflect the actual final size for output.Any insight would be appreciated. I’m lacking in Illustrator knowledge although I know it’s a dynamic program.
Thanks.
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2 Replies
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The long answer:
Your printing service should only need a PDF file, which you can save out of Photoshop.
If you go with PDF, make sure to alter the Compression settings to Not Downsample and use ZIP compression. And, heed any warnings that are given.
Or, you could save as a layered TIFF with LZW compression.Flattening would make it difficult for the printer to isolate areas that need color corrections, but you should do test prints on a similar medium such as gloss photo, or whatever.
Also, there can be font issues with PDFs from Photoshop. Particularly when Faux Bold is used, but often when different font versions are available on the two systems. I’m in PS CS2 and I don’t have an option to embed fonts, perhaps later versions do.?
Convert type to shapes before saving a file that will go to your printing service.
I’m more of an Illustrator person. My workflow will almost always be Illustrator >> Photoshop. This can also be said with InDesign. You would do your design/layout in AI or ID and place Photoshop rasters into these projects. Than, you can save PDF’s with embedded fonts.
The short answer:
1 – In PS Layer/Type/Convert to Shape. Do this to all of your text objects, before saving the PDF, and it will prevent any font issues.
2 – At 30×80 you’re likely going to have a huge file that may need to be burned to CD and mailed.Hope this helps.
Vince
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Personally I don’t use illistrator, what I do though with photoshop is save the picture as a png, it’s higher quality than a jpg and print from that png save…. that’s just me though. in saving as a png it will automatically ‘flatten’ the image so there’s no need to make paths or anything as such.
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