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How to open and place eps files into Photoshop Tutorial Beginner's Guide

By Andrew Buckle, Video Tutorial Creator / Designer

Updated : 2021

opening and placing eps files into Photoshop tutorial

  1. File and open command in Photoshop

  2. select the eps file via your file explorer / browser

  3. Set the width and height

  4. Set the resolution

  5. Set the color mode / image mode to CMYK or RGB or LAB or grayscale

  6. Set anti-aliased to ON (or not)

  7. Constrain proportions to ON (or not)

How to open EPS vector artworks in Photoshop. You can use the file open as well as file place command to open and load eps vector artworks into Photoshop. You can also use the combination of Photoshop and Illustrator to edit the eps shapes and use as native custom shapes in Photoshop.

 

How to quickly open the EPS file via the file open command in Adobe Photoshop

open and load eps shapes

  1. File menu in Photoshop

  2. Open

  3. Browse for eps files and select and click open

  4. Set size etc and click OK

The EPS artworks can be used as standard layers in Photoshop. They can be loaded via the file open command as well as the file place command but the thing to remember is that they will then be raster artworks and not a vector.

 

You can also open the EPS files in Adobe Illustrator and then copy them back into Photoshop especially if you are using the Adobe creative cloud

file open and load into Photoshop via Illustrator

File and open command in Adobe Illustrator

Select EPS file and open

Edit menu and copy

Back into Photoshop, select the shape layer option

 

To use them as vectors directly in Photoshop is not possible other than using them as a font (the sets on this site contain the fonts and EPS format) but the way around this is to bring them into Photoshop and then edit them in Adobe Illustrator and then copy the results back into Photoshop - of course, there are, as with most things Photoshop and Illustrator, many ways to do this such as editing the contents or just using Illustrator in the first place and copying the contents into Photoshop.

 

How to use the eps file as a wonderful source for custom shapes and vector designs in Photoshop

custom shapes and eps conversion in Photoshop

If the artwork has been copied back into Photoshop (from Illustrator) as a shape layer, you can then save it as a custom shape

  1. Go to the photoshop toolbar

  2. Select the direct selection tool

  3. Select all the points

  4. Goto edit menu

  5. Define custom shape

You can now use the eps artwork as a vector and as a native custom shape in Photoshop

 

You can also place the eps files into Photoshop and use them as a layers as well as smart objects and apply smart filters and plugin effects and adjustments

place eps shape conversion

  1. Go to the place command (linked is probably the best choice)

  2. Find eps file in your files

  3. Click Place

  4. Size as required as well as rotate in current opened document

The eps file can then be re-sized and rotated and effects applied etc in Photoshop. The placed eps file is a smart object

 

There are two options, place embedded and place linked. Embedded is great if you are wishing to use a shape you want to be unique to your current work and if you want those edits to the placed file only to be reflected in that file. If you want consistency then the linked is great as any edits to the linked file will be reflected in all files. Of course, other factors may be more important to you such as file size.

 

You can edit the artwork in Photoshop via the properties panel and the edit contents command

properties panel and edit eps files

  1. Window menu and properties

  2. Select the eps shape

  3. Use the convert to linked (if you used the place embed) and save the artwork to a new eps file (the embed option means you are not overwriting the original eps source file)

  4. Click edit contents

  5. Edit in Adobe Illustrator

  6. Save to the same eps file (even though Illustrator persists in setting it to AI by default)

If you use the place linked command, you can edit the content via the properties - simply click the edit contents button in the layer panel (though this does require the association to be set correctly otherwise a totally different application will open such as the preview application on the mac - you will have to use the open with command to reassociate the EPS file).

 

You can also use the layer panel to edit the contents of the eps file

  1. file place (linked) command into Photoshop

  2. browse for eps files

  3. click place

  4. size as required

  5. go to the layers panel

  6. double click the small smart object icon or go to the right side menu and use edit contents

  7. modify the design in Adobe Illustrator

  8. file save

You can also use the smart objects menu command and the edit contents command (found in the layers panel menu or smart objects menu in layer menu) or just double clicking the thumbnail. The result is opened in Adobe Illustrator

 

Opening EPS Illustrator and then copying to Photoshop

file open and copy into Photoshop from Illustrator

  1. Even better approach to opening the eps file in Photoshop, is to open it initially in another application such as Illustrator

  2. start illustrator

  3. file open in Adobe Illustrator

  4. select eps file

  5. copy

  6. go to Photoshop

  7. edit menu paste

  8. select the shape layer option

You can now modify the points of the eps design, something that was not available just by the file open and file place