Illustrator with Photoshop
Learn how you can design and edit images in Illustrator, and see them update in your Photoshop documents.
Published
There are actually a lot of different ways you can work between Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC, and most designers I know typically use both apps.
In fact, here I am in Illustrator CC and quite frankly, I want to take this illustration that I have right here, and I want to bring it into Photoshop CC.
Now, you might be wondering where that came from.
Well, it came from a Creative Cloud market.
All I did is typed in "chemistry", downloaded this SVG file and then modified it.
So, I encourage you to do that.
But then from there, you can go to Edit, Copy that particular asset and then jump into Photoshop CC.
So, you can see here is my design.
In fact, this is where I want to paste that graphic.
Now, when I select Paste, I get four different options.
So, we have Smart Object, Pixels, Path and then Shape Layer.
Pixels is probably the one you want to use the least.
But really, I want to paste this as a Smart Object.
When I select OK, I paste it in, you can see it right there, I can rotate it, adjust it, whatever I want to do.
I might want to put it actually right down there, and for this graphic, if I decide I want to modify it because I'm noticing that I need a little bit more on this end, well to modify it, just double click it, because it's a vector smart object.
Notice how I can just modify it to do some quick modifications as you can see.
I can stretch this out if I want to.
Just some quick modifications, but when I save this file and I go back into Photoshop CC, you can see it's updated.
So, you can see right over here.
I've actually extended that out, so it can reach the edge and I can get that design the way I want it to look.
And I have control over this asset in Photoshop CC.
So, even if I wanted to double click and add a layer style, like a Color Overlay, I don't have to necessarily go back into Illustrator CC to change the color, so I have full control over that.
That is a vector smart object, if I take a look at the Properties panel, notice how you can convert it to a linked file if you want to, but let's talk about that because to be honest with you, there are a lot of logos that I've made in Illustrator CC because you have that vector flexibility and control.
And really, that's what I want to do here, for this logo file I'm just saving it and rather than doing it copy and paste, I'm going to do a File and I can Place Embedded... which is essentially what this is, or I can Place Linked...
So that's what I'm doing, locating that Illustrator CC file, placing it in my file, yYou can see it right here and I can move it may be up there if I want to.
And everything looks great.
That's pretty straightforward.
But what's happening here is this is actually linked right here, you can see the path, so you can click Edit Contents, or you can literally go to that file.
Going to that file right here, I can open it up and whether I have Photoshop CC open or not, whatever the case is, I can open up that file and maybe your brand manager or whoever the brand designer is, they can go ahead and make changes to it if they want to.
So, say for instance the logo was updated and rather than them having to contact you and say, "Hey, you know what?
Replace that in all of your PSDs", all you need to do is make sure you have that right logo .ai file, so I'm saving it - notice how the circle is smaller - it's going to be this updated file, But the thing is, I don't have to do anything when I go into Photoshop CC, as I go right in there, notice how it is, the height of those letters, and it's updated across multiple PSDs.
So, hopefully, you can imagine the power you have when it comes to linked smart objects.
Now at any time, if you want to embed it, you can always select Embed right over here.
In fact, if the link is ever broken, you have other options as well.
So, you can replace the contents of that linked smart object right there and replace it with something else.
But chances are this is probably going to be the logo that you're going to use and you're going to want to use it across multiple designs if you will.
Well, do you always have to pull it in every time you need it?
Well no, because I'd like to introduce you to Creative Cloud Libraries which allows you to take whatever you have, text styles, layer styles, colors and graphics like this one and drag it into your Creative Cloud Library.
You can see it's adding it as logo and it syncs it to Creative Cloud.
So now, this is going to be available to me everywhere, even in Illustrator CC.
So, I can go to the Illustrator CC Creative Cloud Library panel and I can use this logo if I want to.
And case in point, if I open up this other asset right here, I can drag that right in here and there's the logo.
So again, you have a lot of flexibility and really a lot of power when it comes to these libraries because these are all my assets that are synced to Creative Cloud and can be used in Photoshop CC and in Illustrator CC and other places as well.
But what about using assets that were created in Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC.
In fact, I have this butterfly PSD.
I think this would be a nice little asset to use in Illustrator CC.
So, I have this file just saved, pretty straightforward.
Going into Illustrator CC, locating the asset I want to place it into, File, Place..., selecting that, notice how it is going to be linked, selecting Place, there it is, click, there it is.
And adjusting the size and placing it, say right on that M.
Now, if at any time I want to change this butterfly, really, it's a matter of editing the original, selecting that, opening it up, if I want to, say for instance, shift the color of this butterfly to a little more red, there it is, going back in, says that it was modified.
Do you want to update it?
You can see it's updated.
And if you want to embed the object, just select Embed right there.
So, working between Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC is actually pretty easy and that not only goes for placing Photoshop CC files in Illustrator CC, but also placing other Illustrator CC files inside of Illustrator CC or other Photoshop CC files inside of Photoshop CC, still giving you all of that flexibility that you do expect.
Contributor
Paul Trani
