Photoshop import of InDesign documents

[TECsBrain]

Is it at all possible to import InDesign documents INTO Photoshop? I'm trying to be lazy and copy a few textboxes that were laid out in InDesign over to Photoshop so I can use them as logos and still be able to modify them as needed. Is there a plugin available, perhaps?

[tperkins]

Export out a pdf file from Indesign then open it up in PhotoShop.

[morea]

^ exactly. That's what I've done when necessary.

[TECsBrain]

I wasn't clear in my intentions; it would be much simpler to just copy and paste if I just wanted the correct arrangement of pixels transferred from InDesign to Photoshop...

What I've done is laid out a newspaper in InDesign, and I need the title text (font, character spacing, font size, format, etc) of two separate text boxes to be carried over AS TEXT BOXES so that I can re-arrange the letters if different formats of the logo are needed. If there is no easy way to do this, I can simply make new textboxes and do it all over again; the problem is that one textbox overlaid another at a specific point and was rotated to a specific angle, and I thought I'd have been able to simply jump over, if Adobe to Adobe. If not, so be it..

Thanks anyway for your help.

[Piscosour]

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CORELDRAW 12 REVIEW
Date: 13/04/2005


CorelDraw12 Review
by Stephen Symons 12th April 2005

In a world where vector graphics is now dominated by the likes of Adobe Illustrator CS and Macromedia FreeHand MX, one feels compelled to question the validity of an application such as CorelDraw 12. Despite the entire CorelDraw Suite's unquestionable value for money, does its vector application warrant serious attention from established brand loyal design professionals? In many respects, there is a perception that CorelDraw is no more than a runner-up, something of a second-rate Illustrator or FreeHand. I too, held an ignorant view of CorelDraw's abilities when weighed up against the market dominance of the other vector heavyweight contenders. Since my digital beginnings, I've always tended to sideline CorelDraw, based on the naive assumption that professional designers never chose CorelDraw. Little did I realise that across the Atlantic, CorelDraw had a substantial user-base within the American market, and many designers used CorelDraw in conjunction with other vector applications such as Adobe Illustrator.

I've come to realise that CorelDraw is no pretender to the bezier throne, but an equally potent, and in many cases superior application to its competitors. CorelDraw12 certainly proved that to me on countless occasions during the review process. There appears to be an emphasis on productivity and ease of use specifically geared towards the actual creative process of drawing. The emphasis is on establishing intuitive drawing environment for the end-user, no better demonstrated by the new "intelligent" Smart Drawing tool. Imagine a tool that straightens and smoothes your clumsy sketches or shapes 'on the fly'. A rough rendering of a rectangle transforms into a true rectangle with straight sides and 90-degree corners when using the Smart Drawing tool. This tool is no quick-fix for novice illustrators, nor does it result in perfect geometric shapes on every attempt, but it certainly provides users with a speedier alternative to the more traditional shape drawing tools. The Smart Drawing tool produces impressive results when used in conjunction with a pressure sensitive tablet, and performs in a predictably poor fashion when used with a regular mouse.

CorelDraw's Unicode support is massive, encompassing over 65 000 unique characters. The Insert Character window allows one to view extended characters and symbols supported by the cross-platform OpenType font format. In addition, CorelDraw's multi-lingual support is equally attractive to foreign language users. One can even install multiple languages on one system and set the language for the user interface and Help files.

CorelDraw's import and export capabilities far outstrip its competitors with comprehensive support for the handling of technical drawing file formats such as the de facto standard AutoCAD DXF/DWG. This includes the fill mapping, line styles and text handling for AutoCAD files, something that is sadly lacking in other vector applications. There is also a seamless integration between CorelDraw and Corel Designer (Corel's technical drawing app), with complete file and cut-and-paste compatibility.

Amongst my personal favorites are the enhanced snapping functions, allowing your mouse to snap to anchor points, intersections, midpoints, quadrants, tangents, perpendiculars, the edge or centres of objects, the baselines of text and the printable area. Tool tips also appear over these points on mouse over, but wait there's more!
The snapping feature also includes the Import Cursor which allows for easier positioning of imported images, as the cursor gives the user precise feedback on the original and current size of the imported image. The positioning of objects is a breeze with the new Dynamic Guides tool. This tool allows one to drag out temporary guidelines from any existing snap point so that you can precisely move, align and draw vector objects relative to others. The positioning of multiple objects could not be easier, and this feature in itself should be a big draw card for serious vector maestros. Adobe Illustrator's Smart Guides are similar, but lack the versatility of Corel's Dynamic Guides tool. Much like Adobe Illustrator's Smart Guides, it's best to avoid the Dynamic Guides tool when executing a complex vector illustration involving many anchor points.

Text boxes can be aligned according to their bounding box, first or last baseline via the new Align and Distribute dialog. CorelDraw also supports multiple page layouts (a pre-version 12 feature), something that Adobe Illustrator has sadly neglected to include in its Creative Suite (CS) release.
Further text enhancements include better onscreen text display (including leading, tracking and kerning) viewable at low zoom levels.

Corel have paid a tremendous amount of attention to reusable objects, formally known as Library objects, now available from the new Symbol Manager. The use of Symbols is not restricted to the current document and can be shared between documents and other CorelDraw users. In addition, any edits made to an original Symbol means that all instances of the Symbol are updated across the current document. Symbol objects are also identified by blue handles so one can easily distinguish them from regular CorelDraw vector objects. The use of multiple instances of symbols results in dramatically smaller file sizes when exporting files in the popular Macromedia SWF file format.

What about cutting and pasting between non-Corel applications such as Adobe Photoshop? In all instances, CorelDraw performed admirably, and I experienced no crashes or parser module errors when pasting objects from CorelDraw to Adobe Photoshop CS. In fact, it outperformed competitors such as Macromedia FreeHand MX in most cut-and-paste procedures Corel have also made a concerted effort to allow for better integration with Microsoft Office with the Export for Office command. A detailed Export dialog allows one to choose whether the file is intended for presentation purposes, desktop printing or commercial print. There is extensive support for the PNG file format, which supports transparency (viewable in PowerPoint and Word), including settings for output resolution. Other Office file formats for export include the WPG and EMF, but in most cases one will opt for the incredibly versatile PNG.

Another impressive new addition is the Eyedropper Tool, and once again, it moves beyond the capabilities of its competitors. Corel’s Eyedropper Tool does not merely sample standard color properties, but also includes gradients and effects. In addition, the Eyedropper tool can sample colours beyond the Corel workspace, to include other areas of the desktop. The Eyedropper and Paintbucket tools can even be used together to transfer properties such as transparency from one object to another.

A completely new addition to CorelDraw12 is the Virtual Segment Delete tool. If one draws a triangle with the outlines overlapping each other, the ends of the overlapping lines can be simply deleted by means of the Virtual Segment Delete, leaving the remaining triangle without any unnecessary linear overlaps. This tool is ideal for cleaning up line segment overlaps of a rough sketch, especially those hurriedly executed sketches with a pressure sensitive tablet.

The question remains; does CorelDraw12 have the ability to compete with Adobe and Macromedia's vector applications? In my opinion, CorelDraw12 is equally powerful, and in many respects more user-friendly, versatile and efficient than its competitors.

It certainly demands serious investigation by any graphics professional that requires a high-end vector illustration and multiple page layout package at an extremely competitive price. Can CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand MX enjoy a symbiotic relationship? Well, if you are a serious vector illustrator, there's no doubt that you already use Illustrator and FreeHand in conjunction with each other. Perhaps it's time that you expand your vector drawing horizons, and include CorelDraw in your resolution independent toolbox.

Stephen Symons
info@stephensymons.co.za / www.stephensymons.co.za (http://www.stephensymons.co.za)
All software kindly supplied by Direct Distribution Services
www.directservices.co.za (http://www.directservices.co.za)

[PersonasBinar]

Wtf?!!!

[Piscosour]

wtf???? why!

[PrintDriver]

Yeah, now if only it ran on a mac. And required licensing to use it correctly. LOL!

There's a line in that missive somewhere about copy/pasting to Photoshop.
Not what the person wants to do. They want to be able to edit the text, not just paste it.

And Illustrator with multi-page function is not necessary. Please. That's what layout programs are for!

[Piscosour]

Jaja, that's not true... what would you do if you need to update the pantone of 53 illustrations, What would you do if your client request to change the specifications of those illustrations( complex illustrations with layers, little spots of colors, something that doing it manually would be insane!!)... Would you use Indesign and update individually the illustartion using illustrator???? God that would be a pain in the ass!!! CD allows you to update the color of the illustration just using one commnad..and then!! magic in 5 seconds something that would take you hours using illutrator and InDesign. (that's just one example)

[Piscosour]

Everything is relative... and for the kind of job I am doing ..Corel is the best option.. there is no way that Illustrator and Indesing could do it. Multiple pages in a vector's software allows you to modify everything you want anytime without changing the program.. and you can update your illustrations automatically. We are talking about 28 pages... if I were using ID I would have to update the illustration individually with illustrator...no thanks.. ID is better if you have to deal with big amounts of text, like books or newspapers..in that case CorelDraw is not the software.

[PrintDriver]

Oh, I don't argue that Corel has its place (when it's in the right hands and you can find a printer who will print it). Maybe not in this thread though.
:D

And in Illy, if I want to globally replace a color, I do so in the palette. Takes all of a second or two.

[PersonasBinar]

Well as these files are all human readable i'd write a script to change all the instances of the colour, with out even opening an application. Or if the pantone is a spot it doesn't matter what colour it is define a different ink on press if you';d like.

[PrintDriver]

oh, nice. Just change the ink on the plate. If only it were that simple in wide format
:p

[PersonasBinar]

lol....but it's not as big as yours PD....give and take my friend

[Kool]

Why is this logo in Photoshop? (had to be asked)

[TECsBrain]

yeah I'm very confused now...does this have anything to do with my question?

[Kool]

yeah I'm very confused now...does this have anything to do with my question?

In short no, the Draw vs Illy debate is a subject for another thread. I asked why the logo is in PS because PS is a raster program and raster logos are not good. Read the "Raster vs Vector" thread in resources to find out why. Assuming the logo is a PS file and is gonna stay one for whatever reason why not bring the logo into ID instead of trying to take the text into PS. Or better yet get them both into illustrator.

[Broacher]

I tried this:

Cut and paste the page from ID to AI. Okay-- some things have a problem, but the bulk came through. From there, I can do a SaveAs to PSD and choose to keep text as text layers-- but the catch is, any text in a group gets rasterized. And when you paste into AI from ID, there's a massive amount of grouping that's going on and I can't figure how to quickly get everything out into it's own layer in AI. Doing a 'release to layer- build' just seems to create more groups.

As for the whole CorelDraw thing-- yeah, what the heck was that? The biggest question in my mind about Corel is what the heck are they going to call the next version of Draw? It's the only major app to reach this number, ever, it seems. So... will they listen to marketing's concerns about the superstition and the media focus looking for the 'unlucky' things (which are part of any new release, but you can be sure it would be super-scrutinized)-- or, if they're clever enough with the marketing (yeah, right), will they find a way to make lemonade? I mean, why not use this unique opportunity?

And what about the timing of the next release? January is the first Friday the 13th.... the next one doesn't come up until October. Now THAT would be a fun idea to play with.

[carter the artist]

hey piscosour, are you a CD rep?