InDesign: Working with Photoshop and Illustrator

Smoothly integrate Illustrator and Photoshop artwork into InDesign, and vice versa, with these tips for sharing artwork without losing formatting, sharpness, or quality.

Switching between the "big three" graphic design programs in Adobe Creative Cloud can be riddled with tiny difficulties. But with a few simple workflow adjustments, you can smoothly integrate Illustrator and Photoshop artwork into InDesign, and vice versa.

Here David Blatner, cohost of InDesign Secrets.com, goes over placing images from Illustrator and Photoshop, copying and pasting InDesign artwork, managing color and transparency, and dealing with linked images, vectors, layers, and more. By the end of the course, you should be able to move seamlessly between the three tools, getting the results you want and without losing formatting, sharpness, or quality.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Getting the most out of this course
• Using the exercise files
• Blatner's three rules of design and production

1. Placing and Sharing Artwork

• Placing Photoshop images in InDesign
• Placing Illustrator images in InDesign
• Copying and pasting into InDesign
• Sharing artwork with CC Libraries
• Copying InDesign artwork into Illustrator or Photoshop
• Moving InDesign artwork via Export
• Copying text from one program to another
• Sharing color swatches

2. Managing Linked Artwork

• Managing transparency
• The problem of blending modes
• Editing original artwork
• Swapping high-res for low-res FPO images

3. Maintaining Text, Vectors, and Layers

• Keeping Photoshop text and vectors sharp
• Hiding and showing layers
• Managing layer comps
• Using Photoshop clipping paths
• When to convert images to CMYK

Conclusion

• Next steps