Illustrator CS3 and CS4 both have an excellent feature that allows you to export artwork from a .AI to a .PSD, retaining the individual layers. This is great when developing a website. Personally, I opt to wireframe and then mock up in Illustrator, but when it comes time to create the XHTML template, I like to go to Photoshop because traditionally exporting directly from Illustrator has been less precise.

To export to Photoshop, you simply select File > Export, then choose PSD as the file type (and in Illustrator CS4 you can now choose to export one or all artboards while you’re at it). You’re presented with a dialog box with a load of options, but the key thing here is to choose “write layers”.

If all is well, the net result is a layered PSD file containing editable text and nested groups of objects matching your groups in Illustrator. As a side note, drop shadows are rendered out as separate items so aren’t live once you’ve moved to Photoshop.

The bug

The bug arises when you try to export artwork that has a layer with nested grouped objects.

If you have a group within a group, 4 levels deep – ie. Group > Group > Group > Group and on the lowest level (furthest in) you apply a drop shadow, Illustrator’s export engine fails and you’ll get an innocuous error message:

This little box hides the fact that when you open Photoshop, all layers beneath and including the nested group layer will be flattened onto one layer. This happens in both CS3 and CS4. It may be that the bug occurs with other live effects; I haven’t done an exhaustive test beyond setting up a couple of documents as you see above to test the theory.

The solution

Understanding what causes the problem should mean you’ve already figured out the solution. Pretty much it’s as straight forward as ungrouping objects. Make sure you have nested groupings to a maximum of 3 levels deep if you want to apply drop shadow to nested grouped items. I tend to stick almost all my content in one layer when developing a design, and then split it out into layers ahead of the export – which is probably why I’ve come across this issue. You can save yourself the headache by creating layers as you go, and thus reducing the need to group objects together in the first place.

October was fantastically busy both for us as a company and for me personally. Furthermore, November doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of letting up. I guess some of this is driven by companies wanting to compete for business more, and thus needing effective communication materials. As a small business owner it’s crossed my mind that the financial issues the economy is facing might present us with issues, but at the same time I see it very much as an opportunity.

In my line of work everything essentially boils down to forming a relationship with the end user. This is true (and easy to see) when we’re talking about a website design, but it’s also just as pertinent for print, application design, signage, identity and so on. Our customers come to us because they think they want a new website or a refreshed brochure etc, but what they really want (in nearly every case) is to convey an idea or message to their existing customers or attract new customers. The end game is a call to action—to buy something, to provide feedback or to engage in some other way with the company and/or the product and services it is involved in providing.

So actually the brochure or website is all about creating dialogue between the service provider and the service user. Graphic design, fundamentally, is about facilitating that dialogue; opening new channels, approaches and mechanisms to enable the communication to flow. The trick to being a good designer is getting to the key messages and objectives, and presenting or representing these in an aesthetically attractive, fresh and engaging manner.

Every designer wants to be original, creative and unique. The best designers (in my opinion) are those who manage to take all the communication and dialogue requirements and wrap them up in a perfect package of typography and graphics in such a way that the design aesthetics (although fundamental) are forgotten temporarily as the piece engages the user or viewer in a moment of dialogue. I think that if we, as designers, can acheive that, well then we’ve done something right that day.

So, as companies are competing in the deteriorating market conditions generally, so they’re going to be increasingly wanting to differentiate themselves, engage and enter into dialogue with their customers, retaining and building relationships. Given that’s what we’re here to help with, even in troubling economic times, there’s a wealth of opportunity out there to capture new clients.

Let me say now, if you use Illustrator regularly, upgrade.

Seriously, I wouldn’t go back to CS3. The most important new feature, in my opinion, is support for multiple artboards. I wouldn’t recommend laying out a brochure in Illustrator; it’s just not built for that, and InDesign handles it all with much more aplomb, but for business cards, multiple items of stationery for the same client, and even multiple versions of the same mockup – superb.

Anyway, beyond that the tool I’m getting the most enjoyment out of currently is the Blob Brush. Rubbish name, even if appropriate, but great tool. Essentially, everything you hoped Illustrator would do the very first time you used it is now true. This is like a combination of Flash and Freehand in terms of drawing vector shapes with a brush. Great fun, massive productivity boost. It makes blocking out colour in to organic shapes much easier.

These are just the two enhancements I’ve got time to talk about just now. There are actually quite a few other very useful additions I hope to get to talk about in the future. So, I’ve come full circle. I started off dubious, but am a total convert. Pretty glad to have the new version, I’d recommend it to any serious Illustrator user without hesitation.

Today I added my Wacom Graphire 4 tablet, and after installing the drivers it’s working beautifully. In fact, it seems to be working far better than it ever did on my various PCs. The tablet itself is getting on a bit now, and I suppose I could do with a new one fairly soon, but I’m really pleased it seems to have a new lease of life; might be the revised drivers, or could be Photoshop CS4 I guess (although I don’t think so).

Quick test of pressure sensitivity:

Actually, it might be that I’ve managed to set the pressure levels more successfully than previously. Whatever, I recommend using a tablet. Alien at first, natural after 20 minutes of use. I’d forgotten in the several months since last using it how much it can add to the workflow.