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Problem with smart objects (vector art) – they turn out blury when I save the psd as jpg or pdf
Hi. The problem I’m facing might actually be an Illustrator issue rather than a Photoshop one. I’ve imported vector several vector art (made with Illustrator) into my Photoshop file as smart objects.
When I save the psd file as jpg or pdf file – all the imported vector art (the smart objects) turn out pixelated and blury. In Photoshop they look fine. It’s only when I ‘save as…’ that I see the bad quality of these elements. All other elements made directly in Photoshop look fine.
I’m using CS4 versions for both PS and AI, on Windows XP.
If it matters, I did do some editing of the smart objects. When editing the smart objects I would double click the smart object layer which would open the file in Illustrator. After editing in Illustrator I would save and close the file. The smart object would update in Photoshop accordingly.
I will really appreciate any help with this.
Thanks!
OS:
Windows XP 32-bit(Service Pack 3)
Hardware:
ASUS P5Q Pro MB
2.4 Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
4 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
M-AUDIO AUDIOPHILE 2496
WD ST3320613AS Hard drive 320 GB [SYSTEM DRIVE]
WD ST3500320AS Hard drive 500 GB [WORKING DOCS]
WD WD7500AAKS Hard drive 750 GB [MEDIA STORAGE]
Software:
ADOBE CS4
VEGAS PRO 9 -
3 Replies
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I could be wrong, but I believe when you save as, it references the smart object and creates a pixel-based representation of that object, inevitably creating some pixelation.
The beauty of vectors and SO’s in PS is that you can change the size etc and it references the AI file to create as nice as possible of a pixel version of that object. However, when you save as a jpeg it will always need to create pixels out of your vector.
As for cleaner saves, Png, Tiff and Pdf are always going to be better than a jpeg.
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hi david, thanks for replying.
yes, i think you’re right about the save as… and the rasterizing of the smart objects to pixels. in fact, when saving to jpg, everything is pixels, i guess. but still, when viewing the resulting jpg at 100% the smart objects which were once vector art and are now pixel-based art still should look pretty much the same as the psd at 100%. but in my case, they don’t. they look much softer around the edges, obviously degraded in quality much beyond how it should be. whats more is that if i create a square shaped vector in photoshop and then place a smart object of the same sized square shape made in illustrator and then save that file as a jpg – the illustrator object will turn out blurry and the photoshop square turns out nice and sharp. by the way, all of this is true also when saving to pdf.
someone at a different forum suggested i first rasterize all my smart objects within photoshop and then save as jpg (or pdf). to tell the truth, i haven’t tried that yet. but even if that did work, it wouldn’t be a very great working method, since you can’t undo rasterizing smart objects, so no sense in doing that.
i’m sure it’s some kind of settings somewhere, maybe telling photoshop to rasterize the smart objects at a particular quality. but i can’t find where. otherwise it could just be something buggy. the funny thing is that i don’t recall ever having run into this problem before.OS:
Windows XP 32-bit(Service Pack 3)
Hardware:
ASUS P5Q Pro MB
2.4 Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
4 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
M-AUDIO AUDIOPHILE 2496
WD ST3320613AS Hard drive 320 GB [SYSTEM DRIVE]
WD ST3500320AS Hard drive 500 GB [WORKING DOCS]
WD WD7500AAKS Hard drive 750 GB [MEDIA STORAGE]
Software:
ADOBE CS4
VEGAS PRO 9 -
They way I read it previously I didn’t see that you were not new to smart objects.
It is interesting that your view looks nice at 100% in PS.
Honestly, that being the case leads me to believe that it is photoshop, not illustrator.
I’ve got nothing for you except for making sure that you are using the best possible save as quality for PDF.
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