how to preserve paths

[kkendall@adobeforums.com]

Dear fellow Illustrators,
I have a problem that is bothering me from time to time...:

How can I preserve the paths in Photoshop 6, from an image saved in Illustrator 10, in EPS format?

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Copy from Illustrator and Paste as Paths into a new document in Photoshop

[kkendall@adobeforums.com]

So you mean that I can't automatically save the paths and use them in photoshop??

I need to make a path in photoshop, save as eps, open the file in illustrator, convert the path to (for example) a clipping mask and than save it again as eps.
Now I can scale in illustrator without loss of data in the clipped photo.
But...now I can't automatically use the paths in the eps file into photoshop because in photoshop they disappear! I at least can't figure out how. What do you reccommend?

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

KK,

>>Now I can scale in illustrator without loss of data in the clipped photo<<

???

NO you can't! You can only scale vectors without quality loss! A raster
image is still a raster image whether it is a TIFF, EPS, PSD or any other
format, and cannot be scaled without quality suffering!

When you scale a raster in Illustrator, all you are doing is increasing the
physical printing dimensions while reducing the ppi of the image. The image
still has the same number of pixels - you are just 'spreading them out' over
a larger area.

[kkendall@adobeforums.com]

Dear Len,

An image in illustrator that is for example 5 by 5 inches can be scaled to 2 by 2 inches, saved and later be scaled to the original size of 5 by 5 inches and still have all the original quality. This is not possible in photoshop. Once you scale the picture smaller and you save it, it can't be scaled back to the original size in the original quality, it will be more 'pixelled'.
In illustrator it 'remembers' the original size and quality of the imported tiff, jpeg, eps or whatever format you imported in the eps file.
I understand I cant scale a raster image larger than the original. Sorry for my unclear explanation...

[Alexander_Kogan.@adobeforums.com]

I understand I cant scale a raster image larger than the original.




You understand right.

You can downscale an imported bitmap image and upscale it afterwards, when in Illustrator. You can do it, because the image properties don't change, what changes is the relative scale the program uses to output the image (oh, well, it doesn't sound any more clear, but... can't find the words :) ). You can't upscale the image within illustrator without losing quality, and exactly for the same reasons: it will be transformed proportionally. So if you, for example, upscale the image two times, every pixel will be two times larger, resulting in pixelated image.

[kkendall@adobeforums.com]

Dear Alexander, or someone else,

Do you think you can answer my original question, which was:
Is there a way to automatically, so without copy-paste, keep the paths back and forth between illustrator and photoshop in eps format?

Also, how can I see what the color seperation is of the imported 'pixelphoto'?
I have to know because I can only work with colors in grayscale or in the black and magenta layer of the cmyk spectrum. This is the way we deliver our material to the printing agency.

Kind regards from Holland!

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

KK,

>>This is not possible in photoshop. <<

Of Course it is!

Just change the image size WITHOUT the resample checkbox checked - then
Photoshop is doing EXACTLY the same thing Illustrator is.