Using Photoshop to Rasterize and Print Unruly Vector Art

Now that I have touted the merits of preserving vector art whenever possible, let me also give raster art an attaboy. If you are a user of drawing programs, such as Illustrator, FreeHand, or CorelDraw, you may occasionally run across a complex drawing with a multitude of anchor points that won’t print. As a fail-safe, you can rasterize the drawing in Photoshop and print it from there. Sure, you lose the crisp, clean vector lines, but at least you get some output. And if you rasterize it at a high enough resolution, you’ll probably be okay. You can rasterize your vector art in several ways in Photoshop:

- Choose File-->Open. Select your file and click Open. In the Rasterize Generic EPS Format dialog box specify your dimensions, resolution, and color mode. Select Constrain Proportions to maintain your aspect ratio. Select Anti-aliased to slightly soften the edges of the artwork and minimize jaggies.
- Create a new Photoshop file at your desired dimension, resolution, and color mode.
Choose File-->Place, select the vector file (EPS or the latest native Illustrator, FreeHand, or CorelDraw format), and click OK. The vector artwork comes into the Photoshop image window. If you need to size the image, hold down the Shift key and grab a handle on the corner. When you’re finished, press Enter (Return on the Mac). The vector art is rasterized at the resolution of the Photoshop file and resides on a separate layer.
- Drag and drop the vector artwork from the drawing program into Photoshop. Just drag from one window to the other. The artwork automatically becomes rasterized at the resolution of the Photoshop document. To drag the artwork as paths, press the Ctrl key (Ô on the Mac) when dragging. You can also use the clipboard method by using the Edit-->Copy and Edit-->Paste commands.