Export Illustrator Files to Photoshop
Tips | June 23rd, 2008
I love working in Illustrator, but ever once and a while, I need to export a file to Photoshop. Illustrator gives you the ability to export to Photoshop while preserving important information. You can export Layers, Color Profiles, Resolution Specification, and Text Preservation. This is great for exporting website wireframes or sprucing up illustrations.
Exporting
Go File > Export and choose Photoshop (psd) for the Format option, to bring up the Photoshop Export Option dialog. Here you can change the Resolution, Color Profile, Layer Options, Text Edibility, and so on. One thing to note is that your Document Color Mode has to match the Color Model in the export options for the ability to Write Layers.
Cool, I never dug deep enough to find this!
This is a great tool but I wish there was a way to export the objects as vector smart objects instead of pixels.
That would be great! Maybe in Illustrator CS4?
thanks i like this tip and this will be realy utility
just select an object then copy. In P.S. paste and choose smart object.
Thanks D.A.T! That does work great for pasting a single object, but it gets a little more difficult when you need to paste numerous layers and objects into Photoshop. It would be nice to copy a whole Illustration while keeping the each path or layer a Smart Object, but I bet the next version will be able to do this.
I have always had problems using this feature in Illustrator, it always give me a “not enough memory error”. Do you know the file size limitation of exporting to Tiff or PSD? Thanks!
I have never run into that problem, and not sure of any limitations, maybe it is a limitation of your system. I will try to export a very complex file and see if I run into the same problem.
I am running a Mac Pro Quad 3 with 4 gigs AI 13.0.2. My current work flow is to save it as a AI or EPS or PDF and force open the file with PS to convert it to raster. Sigh. It might be a Adobe file size export limitation. Hope you have better luck! Thanks for all the tips!
I had some problems with a huge illustration while trying to convert, I think you are right about the export limitation. I seems if you have a bunch of object that are not grouped on a layer, Illustrator will Flatten that layer when converting. But if you have numerous grouped paths it won’t. So if in Illustrator I had 4 layers with 10 grouped object in each layer, that would convert into 40 Photoshop Layers. If you ungroup ever object on the 4 layers in Illustrator you would only get 4 layers in Photoshop. I don’t know if this will help you out any, but maybe.
Thanks! I will try that out.
Very useful little tip for going back and forth, and some great info in the comments too. Thanks again!
I can’t believe adobe has not solved this
this is what i was looking for n__n
thanks!
Taken from the Adobe Site:
Write Layers
Exports groups, compound shapes, nested layers, and slices as separate, editable Photoshop layers. Nested layers that are more than five levels deep are merged into a single Photoshop layer. Select Maximum Editability to export transparent objects (that is, objects with an opacity mask, a constant opacity less than 100%, or a blending mode other than Normal) as live, editable Photoshop layers.
That’s way cool tip… though I really can’t make it work!
I have 87 layers in Illustrator and I’d need them all to be available in photoshop,,, but this freaking thing gives me just the 4 first layers and merges the rest…?
I wonder what’s goinf on cause this totally doesn’t work for me :b
Rype and SNEVI’s comments about grouping is key. You have to re-sort each of your AI layers so that each on is no single layer is more than 5 nested layers deep. Otherwise, AI just merges them together upon export. Perhaps this is a limitation that keeps AI from having to process a barrage of nested layers.
Go back into your AI file and move layers around so that none has more than 5 nested layers in it.
I’ve exported to .psd a million times but it’s kicking my butt today. AI CS4 will not export to layers even though I have tried grouping all items on each layer, grouping separate things on same layer, etc. Still a flat .psd file. Yes, ‘Write Layers’ is checked, yes, ‘Preserve Text Editability’ is checked, yes ‘Maximum Editability’ is checked. Still this POS is exporting a flat .psd file.
@ Ender
That’s weird I haven’t been having any problems with PSD export. The files I have been exporting don’t have that many layers. Do yours? I’ll try a huge file. You can always try to restart Illustrator (sure you have already tried this).
Thanks for sharing Vectips!
I love the site design as well!
Great job.
Peace and Love,
Mikeumus
I have had the “memory” problem when exporting to Photoshop, and I’ll try grouping everything. But so far my quick fix is just to enlarge everything by 500%, export a 72dpi jpeg, and then make my 300dpi version in Photoshop. But that would be a pain if you;re trying to maintain layers and not just make a file for a printer.
That was a really useful tip !
I have been struggling with this for a few versions of CS.
Today I found out that a single opacity mask (even if it’s outside of an artboard) makes the export plugin to flatten all layers together. Had to get rid of the masks first and then export again.
BTW – using multiple artboards in CS4 allows auto export to many PSDs at once. Saves huge amount of time.
After spending 5 hours on this very issue (and before today, it did work many times without a problem), I found that AI’s dropshadows were causing the flattening into a single layer. Blending modes and opacity masks were not a problem – dropshadows were. After going through every single object and exporting without it, I narrowed it down to that.
F***ing dropshadows lol.
If you only want the inside of the artboard remember to set it when you export!
How do you “set” the artboard in order to get only what’s inside?
After you go File > Export and choose Photoshop, there is an option in the export window to “Use Artboards”. This will crop the Photoshop file to the edges of the Artboard.
Hi,
My problem is that I have a Illustrator file with a very large dimensions,
and when I want to export it to Photoshop it shows me an error regarding having not enough memory! The file is a Sign board and it is roughly about 7 meters by 1.5 meters, and it should be printed out later, so I need to export it with a proper amount of resolution, like 300ppi or something. Please show me a way.
Thank you.
Can your printer print EPS or Illustrator files? If so, it might be better just to give them the artwork in vector format. The beauty of vector art is it can be scaled up without loosing any quality. As for getting the Memory error, it is really just a limitation of your computer. You can try writing a PSD with a the layers flat from the PSD export dialog, or try closing some other open programs on your computer.
thank you
Hi,
when i open the file in photoshop the size is wayyy bigger than the one i have in illustrator
why is that?