The problem is that the the TWO path paths must be in ONE saved path, one inside of the other, in order to work as a knockout.
selected them both at the same time, and saved as ONE clipping path. i did not save them separately.
are you referring to the "exclude overlapping path areas?"i have not used that tool at all. i’m obviously doing serveral things wrong.
do you know where i can find help information on how to do this properly? is this called a clipping path? the only thing that i can find in the index of PS cs3 book is how to make a clipping MASK and that seems different than what i’m trying to do
thanks
If you haven’t used the option I told you to use, then what more help could I give you? Your answer is in my previous post.
here is the issue: learned how to make clipping paths way back in photoshop 3. all i did was make the paths, save them as clipping paths, and voula – i had the path with the holes cut out, everything was fine. now fast forward to cs3, which i have not kept up with all the new functions, I didn’t know anything about the options bar features. i just spent about 3 more hours searching on the web to find a tutorial to show me the NEW way of making clipping paths with holes ( or compound paths) work, which, from what i have gleaned, is to select the inner paths (the holes) and hit that second button from the left, in the options bar (subtract from shape) save the whole thing as a clipping path, eps, and it seems to work when i import into quark or ID. I appreciate your help but don’t know how to use what you told me or where it fits into my method. thats why i wanted to find out from scratch how to use what you were telling me. I guess i’d have to read a tutorial about that too but don’t know where to find it… thanks for your time and effort to help.
patti
As I wrote in the previous post, select the option on the far right for your pen tool and draw your path. No tutorials necessary.
i learned how to make clipping paths way back in photoshop 3.
Well, you hardly need clipping paths anymore. Just do what PeterK said. It is easy. Don’t make this harder than needed. No tutorials are needed.
And, use a proper uppercase "I" to not have all of your posts in italics.
thanks for the advise. so if these are not called clipping paths anymore, then what are they? there must be a term for a path that knocks out the background…
What Charles means is that clipping paths are an old method of achieving transparency to knock out background. Most people these days just apply masks to their layers to hide what they don’t need and save their images as .psd or .tif, which support transparent layers. With the new methods, you don’t have to limit yourself to the hard edge that clipping paths give. You can have soft, feathered edges, or even gradients going from solid image to transparency.
thanks – i didn’t know that. that information is very helpful. patti
so i have now learned the much easier way to create a clipping mask and it works perfectly in photoshop (using the layer mask is much faster, too) . HOWEVER, when i import it into quark as a tiff (saving transparency) or photoshop eps, it does not work. the background is there. it drops out in PS, but appears in quark. what am i doing wrong??? any ideas?
btw, it also does not work when i import it into InDesign cs3
did you save the path as a clipping path in photoshop or did you just save the path.
Eps files cannot save transparency. Stick to psd or tiff, and when you bring them into Indesign, the transparency should work fine. Only the very latest versions of quark supported transparency (or maybe only with the proper extensions loaded). Indesign and Illustrator, work fine with transparent psds and tiffs.
How are you "importing" into ID3?
Proper way is go File>Place and browse to your image. Either PSD or TIFF. "Drag-n-drop" or "Copy-n-Paste" method will not retain transparency. Look up "Place (import) graphics" in ID3 Help. Not sure about Quark.
to Buko: I did not create a clipping path at all, I just created a clipping mask
to Peter K: hmmm, thats not what i read in this tutorial, take a look towards the bottom where they tell you to save as eps… <
http://www.photoshop911.com/clipping/index.html>
obviously this tutorial may be wrong
charles, imported it into indesign with place command, still not working.
Is there anywhere i could send this file and someone could take a look? Pixcentral does not accept tiffs or eps’s…
The PS CS3 online help menu says this:
If your image contains a transparent background or areas that you want to be transparent, create a clipping path around the opaque areas of the image. Even if you have deleted the background around the image, you must define the area with a clipping path before converting the file to TIFF or EPS format. Otherwise, areas that are transparent may appear as white in the page-layout program.
so on top of creating a clipping mask i have to create a clipping path around the clipping mask?
Turn on overprint preview in In Design. Does it still look the same?
yes, no change… (have to leave for about 1/2 hour, will check back in when i return)
send me the files.
zip or stuffed.
mo at andresensf.com
Edit:
Looks like ID does not support transparency with the TIFF. Huh. Works on my G5 10.4 at work, but not on my Intel 10.5 at home… Odd.
Here we go: check Save Transparency when saving as a TIFF
I did have that checked… I have a MacBook pro, 10.4.11 will send the file to Mike now …
I did have that checked… I have a MacBook pro, 10.4.11 will send the file to Mike now …
hmmm, i tried one more time and saved it again (w/transparency) turned on and this time it worked in InDesign. did not work in Quark. Photoshop EPS did not work in either program
so, maybe thats the trick, making sure the transparency option is turned on (altho i did have it turned on and for some odd reason it did not work previously)
Your version of QXP may be too old to support transparency . In that case you would have to make sure that the Path had actually been designated and saved as a "Clipping Path" if you want the the image to be silhouetted in QXP.
thanks to everyone for their help! patti
to Peter K: hmmm, thats not what i read in this tutorial, take a look towards the bottom where they tell you to save as eps… <
http://www.photoshop911.com/clipping/index.html>
In the tutorial they are showing you how to use a clipping mask to confine a layer above to the pixel areas of a layer below and when they wrote "save as EPS", it looks like in the example they meant you could save as an eps to have the image with the wood layer included. An EPS cannot save transparency at all.
Btw, you don’t have to have a seperate layer to make your clipping mask. Once you have your selection area outlining your object, simply go to "add layer mask." You’ll see the mask icon show up to the right of your layer. You can even edit it by clicking on the mask and using any tools over it. Make the mask visible by clicking it on in your Channels palette.
