Custom brush transfer?

November 6, 2006 6:48 AM

I made some brushes in Photoshop that I would also like to use in Illustrator. Is there any way to transfer them over? Both versions are CS2. Thanks!
posted by kidsleepy to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

I am pretty sure that you can't. Reason being is that you have to create a brush library and because Photoshop is rastor and Illustrator is vector I don't believe that it will recognise it.
posted by Vanna79 at 7:58 AM on November 6, 2006

The only real way to accomplish something like this, would be to create new vector versions of the brushes. If a brush is high-res enough, you could create a simple Photoshop document containing just a decent-sized image of the brush, which you could then bring in to Illustrator, and convert to vector using the Live-trace tools. Only then could the resulting object be converted to an Illustrator vector brush.

Like Vanna says, the two programs are different beasts and don't use the same kind of brushes.
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:11 AM on November 6, 2006

Vanna and Robot Johnny are right as far as the difference in brush libraries go. but you could still bring them over to illustrator. It all depends on your brushes. If they involve transperancy and are complex in shape/form, transferring them over to illustrator might be difficult while preserving the same look and quality.

There are two methods you can try...
A) In photoshop, make a selection of your brush and make that into a "Work Path" in the paths dialogue. Export the path to illustrator (under export in the menu).

Or like Robot Johnny said, use live trace...
B) Place a bitmap image of the brush in illustrator and live trace it . tweak the settings until you get an acceptable result.

Both of these need to be dragged into the brush library. hope this helps.
posted by AMP583 at 8:51 AM on November 6, 2006