are AI files able to be imported in photoshop please?

[Bryan Cabrera]

I have to agree with Andy, you are best using Illustrator for vector drawing. It is much easier to go from Illustrator to Photoshop then the other way around. You can bring paths from Photoshop as Andy said, but you will find that is much easier in Illustrator.

I think once you learn Illustrator you will use it a lot for creating web graphics as well a print graphics because when it is a vector you will be able to scale it without losing quality.

Bryan

[SubtleTease]

Hey Alan,

I’m in a similar boat to you, although I’ve done a fair bit of 300DPI design work in photoshop over the years.

So here’s some advice, based on what I’ve found.

Firstly… 300DPI… great fun… It’s best to just get into the habit right now of designing everything at the highest res you can… My years of web design have left me with an abundance of 72dpi logos and graphics… and it’s incredibly annoying trying to enlarge those if they’re not vectors…
Now, everything I design starts off as big as I can possibly make it, just in case I need it later.

Secondly… I may well be wrong here, I’m new to the whole cutting thing, but I’ve not found a way of outputting to the cutter from Illustrator… I have to use Corel Draw. I know there are a load of cutting software titles out there, and I’m sure some will integrate with Illustrator if that’s what you want to use, but Coreldraw seems to do the trick nicely…

Third… There’s a nice easy way of exporting stuff from Photoshop to cut. Hold down the CTRL button and click on the layer you want to export. It’ll crate a marquee around the contents of that layer alone. If you want to combine layers, hold down both SHIFT & CTRL, and click on the second layer, third, fourth etc.
Then, right click on the canvas and click ‘Make work path’.
Now you’ll have an outline in your paths pallete.
If you click File > Export > Export paths to illustrator, you’ll be able to save the path alone to an AI file.
The AI file can then be opened in Coreldraw, or whatever program you like.

Hope that helps…

[SubtleTease]

Oh, and one more thing… AI and EPS files will both open up in Photoshop… they might not be associated on your system, but if you drag the file into photoshop, it’ll open with no problems.

(If you find that an AI file won’t open in Photoshop, open it in Illustrator and just save it again, then it’ll open in Photoshop… dunno why this works, but it does.)

[Bryan Cabrera]

quote SubtleTease:

So here’s some advice, based on what I’ve found.

Firstly… 300DPI… great fun… It’s best to just get into the habit right now of designing everything at the highest res you can… My years of web design have left me with an abundance of 72dpi logos and graphics… and it’s incredibly annoying trying to enlarge those if they’re not vectors…
Now, everything I design starts off as big as I can possibly make it, just in case I need it later.
Hope that helps…

That is good advice if you need to add effects to a logo that would be difficult or impossible in a draw program. It is best to start off creating graphics as a vector to begin with. Effects like gradients, bevels and drop shadows can all be created in Illustrator and CorelDraw. This will keep it scalable and keep the file size down. You can always import the file into Photoshop later and add additional effects if need be for a certain application and render it at the appropriate resolution. Large images at 300dpi will chew up your hard drive pretty quickly especially if you are using layered Photoshop files.

[SubtleTease]

I don’t have any specific cutter software, so I’m not sure what filetyes they will open, but yes it would make sense that they could open AI or EPS files.

The problem however, mentioned in another topic on the forum, is that Illustrator seems to create lines that are a few pixels thick. If I create a vector in illustrator, then try and output it to the cutter, the cutter thinks that it needs to cut a bold line… which results in it going back and fourth cutting the same spot again and again… very frustrating. If I export it to coreldraw it works fine…
Maybe the cutter software deals with this, I’m not sure.

[Andrew Boyle]

Alan,

I have always designed in Illustrator and cut in Flexisign, it works perfectly….

just view as artwork and save as ill5.5 or less…..

also export [with additional plug in] dxf files from illustrator to cut on router

print directly on gerber edge in illustrator wih ai plug in [macimprint]

cut on the mimaki plotter directly from illustrator after printing

I would be a plumber earning a decent living if it wasn’t for adobe illustrator

Cheers

Andrew