What's the trick? Vector saving.

[lindsayw]

I must be doing something wrong.
I cannot get vector objects to save in .eps or .ai format – I always get the warning that it will be saved as a merged image, even though there is only one layer with nothing except vector objects, and the resulting image is always reduced to a raster image. All vector information is lost. What do I need to do to save my simple vector files so that a printing firm can use them? They insist on .eps or .ai files, which are among the file types supported by PSP, showing in the file-type list as read/write.
All my files were created on an older version of PSP, and saved as .pspimage files but they load into the latest version without trouble, and all the vector objects can be manipulated. I have white lines in the vector shapes, so it is essential to save just the active shapes layer with a transparent background.

[trueblue]

It's always best to save them as PspImage. This way you save eash layer and all the settings.

[lindsayw]

It's always best to save them as PspImage. This way you save eash layer and all the settings.

Well, I have saved all the files as .pspimage but that does me no good if I can't give a printer (printing decals onto car-wrap film) a file that they can use for each shape. They want a vector file, and prefer either .ai or .eps... PSP "says" that it can export vector shapes to an .eps file but it really just seems to export a raster version of the image, which is no good to a printer. Even my ancient version of PSP did this exactly the same, and it's very disappointing to find that the latest version still has the same glitch... if it is a glitch? I can't believe that a glaring fault like this could persist through multiple release versions, so I assume that I'm doing something wrong in my preparation before saving — I always get the message, when saving as .eps, that the image will be saved as a merged image, even though there is nothing but one layer with half-a dozen vector objects on it. Should I be linking all objects on that layer before saving? And why does the .eps file ALWAYS have a white background? All the white vector objects are totally lost. I can't see any way to specify transparency. Am I limited to saving in a raster format like .TIFF?

[LeviFiction]

So long as the image is at the size you want, the fact that it's rasterizing it shouldn't be that big of an issue.

But to answer your question, it can't directly.

Sadly PSP's vector side is not meant for vector only production. The vectors are a graphical add-on to the full purpose of the software and so it's not meant to be used as a vector editor for vector purposes.

PSP's vector file format support is very limited. WMF and EMF are the best supported formats inside of PSP. So if you were to export to EMF and import the EMF into another program and exported those to .ai or .eps that would work. (Inkscape supports EPS with the installation of GhostScript....as does CorelDraw)

Otherwise I might recommend, if vectors are your aim, to give a dedicated editor a try. Illustrator, CorelDraw, Xara, Inkscape. They all approach it differently and everyone has their favorite.

I keep hoping for better vector format support, but highly unlikely anytime soon.

[photodrawken]

They insist on .eps or .ai files,

Give them a PDF file. If they persist in using an old-fashioned process that only can handle those file types, find a new print shop....

[photodrawken]

Otherwise I might recommend, if vectors are your aim, to give a dedicated editor a try. Illustrator, CorelDraw, Xara, Inkscape. They all approach it differently and everyone has their favorite.

I keep hoping for better vector format support, but highly unlikely anytime soon.

I'd recommend using PhotoLine. It's vector capabilities are quite sophisticated for a raster image editor.

A 1pt vector curve from PSP viewed at 1,500%:

PSP vector.png (1.06 KiB) Viewed 11191 times

A 1pt vector curve from PhotoLine viewed at over 5,000%:

PL vector.png (3.62 KiB) Viewed 11191 times

[LeviFiction]

How it looks zoomed isn't really that important when printing. You'll want to know how it actually prints, not how well the program can make it look smooth on screen.

And it looks like you didn't have anti-aliasing turned on for that 1 pixel line.

But you're definitely correct, in many respects PhotoLine's vector tools are much better than PSP's. However the question is, how is its PDF or SVG saving? Because it still doesn't solve the problem of being able to export to EPS or AI and maintain the vector shapes. SVG could be imported into most vector editors so there is a greater chance of being converted to EPS or AI. PDF most likely to EPS or an older version of AI. But would still need to maintain its vectorness to match the question above.

[photodrawken]

And it looks like you didn't have anti-aliasing turned on for that 1 pixel line.

Correct. Turning on anti-aliasing displays a bizarre rasterized image on screen.

But you're definitely correct, in many respects PhotoLine's vector tools are much better than PSP's. However the question is, how is its PDF or SVG saving? Because it still doesn't solve the problem of being able to export to EPS or AI and maintain the vector shapes. SVG could be imported into most vector editors so there is a greater chance of being converted to EPS or AI. PDF most likely to EPS or an older version of AI. But would still need to maintain its vectorness to match the question above.

PhotoLine's PDF importing and exporting is excellent, supporting the latest PDF interchange format. It has its own PDF engine and can optionally also use Ghostscript if you've installed the Ghostscript DLLs.

It imports and exports SVG, but I never have used that format.

PL doesn't export to EPS or AI (although it can import them via the Ghostscript DLLs), but now that we're well into the 21st century, those old (and problematic) formats have been superseded by PDF as the de facto image exchange format. Especially for text, vector and raster images sent to service bureaus.

[lindsayw]

Thanks to everyone for your input... so I'm not going mad. It's just that I hadn't needed to make vector shapes often before except as small parts of a larger raster image, so used PSP for the job because it looked like it could do it, and I was able to MAKE the shapes ok. Just can't export them in any useful way. I will have to investigate a dedicated vector drawing tool, which is annoying... it means that I will have to do all that work again. Oh, bother... or words to that effect.

[photodrawken]

it means that I will have to do all that work again.

If you can export your vector shapes as a PDF, but can't find a print shop that can handle PDF files, search the Web for "PDF to EPS" conversions. A few free online services showed up when I did that search, but I have no idea how good they are...,.

[lindsayw]

Thanks, Ken, but since I want to have decals printed, I may as well just output the files in .png format with a transparent background at exactly the right size to suit the dpi capability of the huge ink-jet printers they use to print on the 1-meter-wide rolls of film, and just use PSP to build the vector shapes in the first place. At output stage, it no longer really matters if they then become raster, so long as they are the right size to suit the printer resolution... ink dots are much the same as screen pixels. I just have to make masks for all the images, slightly tricky since the images often contain both black and white shapes, so can't be generated automatically from luminance levels, haven't tried opacity levels, though...

[photodrawken]

I may as well just output the files in .png format with a transparent background at exactly the right size

Sounds like you've got a useable workaround. Good luck!