Expert: Jennifer Janviere - 7/23/2006

Question
Hi,

 I have adobe illustrator cs and photoshop cs2. Photoshop has some brushes and shapes i'd like to put over to my illustrator projects. I've tried the copy paste thing but it always does a white background around the objects. Ive tried coloring the background before copy paste but it never matches my illustrator background. Is there a way I can save these photoshop files so I can use them in illustrator symbols, brush libraries?

Answer
Hi Becky-

Although I don't know of a specific way to import brushes from Photoshop to Illustrator, I do know of a way that you can create your own custom brushes in Illustrator based on artwork that you create in Photoshop.

The simplest way is to import a file from Photoshop into Illustrator (File>Import), lock it into place (Object>Lock>Selection), and use the pen, pencil and autotrace tools to recreate the shape of the placed artwork. Then, just  open the "brushes" palette (located under Window in the top menu on the screen) and drag the new artwork onto the palette- a new window will appear, allowing you to set the options for your new custom brush (I'll discuss this more a little further down the page).

Another slightly more complicated way to create a brush is to create art in Photoshop and export the artwork as vector outlines for use in Illustrator. This has a few more steps in the process, but is worthwhile to know how to do because it gives you more control over the texture and appearance of a custom brush, and also allows you to imitate the appearance of brushes that are already programmed into Photoshop. The first thing to do is to create a new document in Photoshop. Set the mode to greyscale (Image>Mode) and set the foreground color to black and the background color to white on the toolbar. Select the brush tool from the toolbar, and on the tool settings panel that appears at the top of the screen, select your brush that you want to apply. Set the width of the brush- I would recommend slightly wide for now, such as 300 pixels or more just so that you can see the texture of the brush (you can shrink the size later in Illustrator if so desired). You can also create a custom piece of artwork from scratch instead if you would prefer to later save as a brush; just keep the artwork to black and white only.

You can apply just one simple sweep of the brush if you're trying to duplicate it precisely in Illustrator, or you can build up an entire area of texture. Once you've applied the brush and you are ready to export the artwork that you've just created into Illustrator, select the magic wand tool from the toolbar and click on an area that you've painted black. To make sure that the entire area of art is selected, choose Select>Similar from the menu at the top of the screen. Then, open the "Paths" palette (located under "Window" at the top menu again). On the right side of this palette is an arrow; click on the arrow for more options, and choose "Make work path". Photoshop will automatically draw a vector path for you that imitates that shape you've selected.  Then, choose File>Export>paths to Illustrator. A new menu will appear, allowing you to name your new file and choose the destination where you will save it. I usually save it to my desktop just to make it easy to find and open for the next step. Your artwork is now saved as a vector file for use in Illustrator.

Next, open Illustrator if you haven't yet and then open the file that you've just created (File>open) At first, it will look like just a white artboard with no artwork. Choose Select>All (or apple key + A for a shortcut) and you'll see the outlines of the art that you just traced. Choose a color from the "Color"  palette (located under the  "Window" menu) to fill the artwork with and apply the color to your traced art. If you want to tweak the lines a bit at this point, you can use the pen, pencil and smooth tools to refine the quality of the lines and to select and erase extra points.  Once the artwork shape is tweaked to your liking, open the "brushes" palette from "Window" in the menu at the top of the screen. Then, select the artwork with the arrow tool and drag the shape onto the Brushes palette. A dialogue box will appear, allowing you to set options for your new brush such as the type (art, scatter or pattern). If you want to apply the new brush mainly to line work that you create with the pen or pencil tool, choose the "art brush" option. Name your brush (optional but recommended) and hit the "okay" button. Illustrator will save this new brush selection for your future use.  

To test the new brush out, draw a few lines with the pen or pencil tool, select your lines with the arrow tool, and then click on your new art brush in the "brushes" palette. If you need to tweak the brush further, just go back to the artwork that you imported from Illustrator, make the new changes and repeat the step of dragging the brush into the "brushes" palette.

Hope that this isn't too much info to throw at you- it probably seems like a lot of steps, but after one or two tries you'll get the hang of creating and importing vector art from Photoshop into Illustrator, and the process will be a snap. Feel free to email back if any of this gives you a problem or is confusing to understand, or if you need more clarification about any of the steps and I'll be glad to help you troubleshoot further. Good luck with your project-

Jennifer