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Vectorize Text in Photoshop


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In Photoshop (CS2), I have some text on a layer. Is there a way to vectorize the text in Photoshop, so the text, for printing purposes, is like it's been "outlined" in Illustrator? I thought that could be done, but can't figure it out.

What I'm trying to do is learn that, and in addition, figure out the best way to grab some heavily formatted text from a Photoshop file, and get it into an Illustrator file, to avoid having to go through all the formatting/recreating the text in Illustrator. (In case that helps.)

I know that in CS2 Illustrator, I can open a CS2 Photoshop file. But if I open a Photoshop text-file that's still in a layer, it seems to open in Illustrator as an Object, as opposed to actual text.

Thanks for any help.

be

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This is for CS but it should be similar for CS 2

Hightlight your text

GoTo Layer

SELECT Create work path

This converts it to the shape, then COPY and paste to Illustrator and you will have your vector shape.

Well that was my best guess (before posting here) - but when I do that I get an error - "Cannot complete the request because the layer uses a faux bold style." But the weird thing is that the text doesn't have a faux bold style. Just to test, I opened a new doc, type in some text, set to: verdana, regular, none. So it's still shutting me down.

Thanks Scott - I was hoping you would in here.

;)

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Control + Click (right click) on that text layer in the layers palette, and select “Convert to Shape.” Your text will now be in vector format so that it may be used as a shape, and can be scaled to any size without losing quality. Just Like if you “create outlines” in Illustrator! I find this especially useful when creating logos in Photoshop, or sending a file without fonts.

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it's still shutting me down.

Hmmm, it works on my PC, must be a Mac thing ;):D

I'm not sure if my CS will read your CS2 file, but I'd give it a try if you email me a file with the text you need converted.

The file I wanted to get into Illustrator - the font is GeosansLight. I downloaded it so you probably don't have it. So just to test I'll send you new file with times font.

be

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To turn off Faux Bold, highlight your text layer and open the Window menu, and then click Character. This will bring up the Character palette. In the Character pane, there will be a series of “T” letters appearing just above the font selection area. The first box, with a “T” appearing in bold, is the box that you will want to click to toggle the Faux Bold setting to off.

Another way to turn off the Faux Bold setting is to select your text layer, then open the fly out menu on the Character palette. On this menu, you can uncheck Faux Bold to turn it off for your selected text.

The "Bold T" is shown by the arrow here. Don't pay attention to the layers on this capture as it's not right for what you are doing. You should have the test layer highlighted...

brian.jpg

Best,

'JT

Edited by JThompson
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I finally got around to installing the CS3 upgrade (from CS--I skipped CS2), and it seems really easy to use... some things even more convenient than ever. The basics of CS are still there for the most part (so I didn't have to hunt endlessly for stuff that'd been moved) but there are additional things that are powerful and interesting. Little things, some of them. Refinements.

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