Adobe Illustrator CS

Adobe Creative Suite makes it easy to reuse text created in Adobe Illustrator CS. Now, with Adobe Creative Suite, you can edit Illustrator text directly in Adobe Photoshop CS, so that you don’t have to switch applications just to tweak the text. And by using the Edit Original and Update Link commands in Adobe InDesign CS, you can change the text as often as necessary, without needing to reimport the Illustrator file every time.

1. Create the desired text in Illustrator.

In Illustrator, choose one of the type tools to create the text. You can create editable vertical or horizontal point type, path type, or area type. Select the desired color from the Swatches palette, and select the desired font and size from the Character palette.

2. Export the file to Photoshop format.

Choose File > Export. Select a file location, type a filename, and choose Photoshop (*.PSD) as the file type. In the Photoshop Export Options dialog box, make sure that Photoshop CS is selected in the Export As menu. Select Write Layers, select Preserve Text Editability and Maximum Editability, and then click OK.

When you preserve the layers in artwork, all top-level layers are converted to Photoshop layers. To preserve nested layers, select Maximum Editability. The Preserve Text Editability option is available only if preserving the editability won’t compromise the quality of the artwork. Text in nested layers is always rasterized.

3. Open the file in Photoshop.

In Photoshop, open the file you just exported. If you want to move the text into an existing Photoshop image, select the Move tool, and then drag the text into place.

4. Edit the text in Photoshop.

You’re now ready to edit the text. Select one of the type tools, select the text you want to change, and then type the new text.

You can also adjust any character or paragraph attributes using the Photoshop Character and Paragraph palettes. In this example, we changed the size and color of the text.

5. Add a layer style to the text.

Make sure that the type layer is still selected. Then click the Add a Layer Style button at the bottom of the Layers palette, and choose a layer style. Set the desired options in the Layer Style dialog box, and click OK.

Layer styles are a great way to add visual interest to text without losing the ability to edit it. If desired, you can apply multiple layers styles to create a complex effect. In this example, we applied an Outer Glow effect to our text.

6. Import the text into InDesign.

You can import the same Illustrator or Photoshop text into InDesign to use in a related print piece. Here, we added the Photoshop text to a book cover. Open the desired InDesign file, and then choose File > Place. Select the Photoshop file with the text you edited in the last step, click Open, and then click where you want the text to appear.

If you have Illustrator text that cannot be exported to Photoshop as editable text, you can use this same process to place the file into Photoshop. The text will be rasterized, but the quality of the artwork will be maintained.

7. Edit the text in Photoshop and update the link.

To edit the text or make other changes to the Photoshop file, in InDesign click the name of the imported file in the Links palette, and then click the Edit Original button. The file opens in Photoshop so you can make the desired changes. Save the file, and then switch back to InDesign. The changes appear automatically in the InDesign document.

If you make changes to the Photoshop file directly, without first clicking the Edit Original button in InDesign, you can still have those changes appear in your InDesign document. In InDesign, simply select the file in the Links palette, and then click the Update Link button.