Clear backgrounds for Illustrator

Transparency for Illustrator and Quark

Stacey from NJ, USA, using Photoshop CS with OS 10.3.9, writes in with:

[Quote:] In working with transparent background for images, I never seem to be able to preserve the transparency when saving the file and then placing it into Illustrator. Is there a certain process or saving format that should take place in order to have that transparency behind the image when I bring it into Illustrator or Quark?

Reply:

Nope. Don't forget that Photoshop images are bitmaps. Unless you use the pen tool to outline the image, and export as a DCS file with clipping path included, you'll see the background.

If you're going into Illustrator or Quark XPress anyway, just use those program's clipping functions.

Bring the image into Illustrator and using Illustrator's Pen tool to generate the clipping path. Once exported as EPS with Clipping path, the background will be "clipped" out.

In Quark XPress (You didn't say which version) you can set up your own clipping mast in the Modify dialog / Runaround tab. That gives you several options on how you want the clipping mask to behave.

Well... we probably need a new, updated tutorial on Clipping Paths and eliminating backgrounds in desktop publishing programs, right?

There's a SEARCH field in the LEFT column over here, put "clipping path" into that search field and find our previous tutorial.

(DO NOT POST NEW QUESTIONS to the COMMENTS below. Post ONLY if you have additional information to this particular problem. Thanks)

Comments

[John]

Just a quick tip: make sure the path in photoshop is a Clipping Path - not just a regular path. It's an option in the path menu. Cheers!

[Tom]

You can preserve transparency into both Illustrator and Quark by first saving the Photoshop file with transparency. This is done from, of all places, the Help menu.

Select Help >> Export Transparent Image
and Photoshop will step you through the process. It's straightforward if your artwork is already on a transparent background. I rename the resulting EPS file something meaningful, rather than Photoshop's "Export Assistant-1.eps".

Whether you then go to Illustrator and select File >> Open, or from an open file select File >> Place, or use the EPS file in Quark, the transparent areas are masked out.

The biggest side effect is that sometimes the resulting Photoshop EPS file is much bigger than the original JPEG or TIFF, and, at least in Quark versions up to 5, the EPS wouldn't preview accurately even though it printed fine.

[Aaron K]

Additionaly, the entire CS suite is cross-compatible, thus you can save your image as a psd, and import it into illustrator saving the transparancy. Im not sure if Quark can use psd's but my guess is no, but InDesign can. On a side note, if you are sending these files to a printer, these files can get very large quickly, so it is always a good idea to export to a pdf file as well as turning all fonts to outlines.