Photoshop: Importing text from Freehand or Illustrator

We'll start with getting text from Freehand, since there are more steps. Illustrator users probably don't even need to read this, but you can catch up in step xx.

  1. Create your text in Freehand and save it as a Freehand file for later editing if needed.
  2. Now, select your text and "Convert to Paths." This is important because of strange things that can happen on the Photoshop end when it tries to rasterize fonts. Trust me - paragraphs all come out in one line, and text is occasionally misplaced.
  3. Now use File, Export and choose the option for Adobe Illustrator 3.0 or 5.5. It doesn't really matter which.

    Now, why not choose the other exporting options?
    EPS: For print, sure eps is great. But if you want to get text to Photoshop, forget it. Eps files will open in Photoshop with no anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is what helps text look less jagged, by blending a letter's diagonals and curves with the background. Freehand eps's in Photoshop have jagged edges.

    Pict: Sometimes I wonder why they even bothered to put in this option. Good luck if you want to try it. Most often, hardly anything in your Freehand document will export properly with Pict. Don't waste your time.

  4. Start Photoshop and use File, Open to open your exported Illustrator file.

    * I keep a Photoshop program alias on my desktop so I can drag-and-drop Illustrator files on top of it to open them in Photoshop in one easy step.

  5. A dialog box will appear asking you what size and resolution and background you want for your file. Since I create files mostly for Web and multimedia, I choose 72 dpi and for web, stay within 500 pixels wide. I choose Transparent background so I can proceed with effects (such as the one in the above section). Make sure "anti-aliasing" is clicked.

    * It is better to decide on size here, rather than change it later because of the way Photoshop rasterizes the files. You end up with cleaner text.

    * Sometimes with very small type, like type created for navigation buttons for the web, I will test using anti-aliased, and aliased.

Now you should have nice, anti-aliased type on a transparent background. Make your Canvas Size larger to apply special effects.

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