In the world of creative design, importing Illustrator artworks in Photoshop or using Photoshop files in Illustrator, opens up exciting possibilities. Once you're ready with your final design files, you can optimize the quality by finding the balance between parameters such as the color mode, resolution, anti-alias, and compression.
Best practices for optimal file management
Select any of these options to learn how to optimize the size and quality of your design files.
Choose the right color mode
If your images are meant to be displayed on devices, set the Color mode to RGB.
Enable anti-aliasing
When you export files between Photoshop and Illustrator, use Anti-Aliasing to smoothen jagged edges in digital images by averaging the colors of the pixels at the boundary. You can configure these settings for an optimal design outcome:
- Art Optimized: Applies anti-aliasing to all objects and text.
- Type Optimized: Applies anti-aliasing that is best suited to the type. Enable this option for smooth text edges.
Set the correct resoultion
Images with higher Pixels Per Inch (PPI) tend to be of higher quality because of greater pixel density. Exporting at 300 PPI generally provides industry-quality images.
Exporting an image 1001x1001 Px at 72 PPI results in 1001x1001 pixels, but if we export a similar image with 300 PPI, results in 4167x4169 pixels.
The higher the Quality setting, the more detail is preserved in the optimized image, but larger the file size.
Set the Optimized image within Quality settings to determine the best balance between quality and file size.
Choose the right compression method
When you export as JPEG, choose from these compression methods:
- Baseline Standard: recognizes JPGs to most web browsers. It is basic and, well standard! It makes the least number of changes to your image. All web browsers support it.
- Baseline Optimized: optimizes the color quality of the image and produces a slightly smaller file size (2 to 8% - a little more compression, or slightly faster loading). All modern web browsers support it.
- Embed ICC profile (JPEG only): helps view your file in other applications. An ICC profile ensures that an application color matches the file and saves it in the JPEG file.
When you export files between Photoshop and Illustrator, use Anti-Aliasing to smoothen jagged edges in digital images by averaging the colors of the pixels at the boundary. You can configure these settings for an optimal design outcome:
- Art Optimized: Applies anti-aliasing to all objects and text.
- Type Optimized: Applies anti-aliasing that is best suited to the type. Enable this option for smooth text edges.
Images with higher Pixels Per Inch (PPI) tend to be of higher quality because of greater pixel density. Exporting at 300 PPI generally provides industry-quality images.
Exporting an image 1001x1001 Px at 72 PPI results in 1001x1001 pixels, but if we export a similar image with 300 PPI, results in 4167x4169 pixels.
The higher the Quality setting, the more detail is preserved in the optimized image, but larger the file size.
Set the Optimized image within Quality settings to determine the best balance between quality and file size.
When you export as JPEG, choose from these compression methods:
- Baseline Standard: recognizes JPGs to most web browsers. It is basic and, well standard! It makes the least number of changes to your image. All web browsers support it.
- Baseline Optimized: optimizes the color quality of the image and produces a slightly smaller file size (2 to 8% - a little more compression, or slightly faster loading). All modern web browsers support it.
- Embed ICC profile (JPEG only): helps view your file in other applications. An ICC profile ensures that an application color matches the file and saves it in the JPEG file.