You can open an Illustrator file in Photoshop, which rasterizes it into pixels with beautiful results. So why would you want to Export it instead?
Exporting offers a lot more options to make your Illustrator art far more usable and editable within your Photoshop image. To see what I mean, open an existing Illustrator document that contains Layers, Text, and Transparency (or create a new document using these features). Now go to File > Export and choose Photoshop (PSD) as the Format. In the Photoshop Export Options window that opens, the advantages of Exporting become obvious. You can choose to maintain your Layers in the PSD with Maximum Editablity, and Editable Text. When you open the Exported PSD in Photoshop, the advantages of Exporting grow. Not only do you have Layer Groups with the same names as your Illustrator Layers, but Sublayers containing individual objects, plus adjustable Transparency, and Live Text. With advantages like these, if I need to convert vector into pixels, I always choose Export.
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
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