The Place command adds a photo, art, or any Photoshop-supported file as a Smart Object to your document. Smart Objects can be scaled, positioned, skewed, rotated, or warped without degrading the image.
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If you are placing a PDF or Illustrator (AI) file, the Place PDF dialog box appears. Select the page or image you want to place, set the Crop options, and click OK. For more information on the Place PDF dialog box options, see Place PDF or Illustrator files in Photoshop.
The placed artwork appears inside a bounding box at the center of the Photoshop image. The artwork maintains its original aspect ratio; however, if the artwork is larger than the Photoshop image, it is resized to fit.
Note:
In addition to the Place command, you can also add Adobe Illustrator art as a Smart Object by copying and pasting the art from Illustrator into a Photoshop document. See Paste Adobe Illustrator art into Photoshop.
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To reposition the placed art, position the pointer inside the bounding box of the placed artwork and drag, or in the options bar, enter a value for X to specify the distance between the center point of the placed artwork and the left edge of the image. Enter a value for Y to specify the distance between the center point of the placed artwork and the top edge of the image.
To scale the placed art, drag one of the corner handles of the bounding box or enter values for W and H in the options bar. When dragging, hold down the Shift key to constrain proportions.
To rotate the placed art, position the pointer outside the bounding box (the pointer turns into a curved arrow) and drag, or enter a value (in degrees) for the Rotation option
in the options bar. The artwork rotates around the center point of the placed artwork. To adjust the center point, drag it to a new location, or click a handle on the Center Point icon
in the options bar.
To skew the placed art, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and drag a side handle of the bounding box.
To warp the placed art, choose Edit > Transform > Warp and then choose a warp from the Warp Style pop-up menu in the options bar.
If you choose Custom from the Warp Style pop-up menu, drag the control points, a segment of the bounding box or mesh, or an area within the mesh to warp the image.
When you place a PDF or Adobe Illustrator file, use the Place PDF dialog box to set options for placing the artwork.
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Under Select in the Place PDF dialog box, select Page or Image, depending on what elements of the PDF document you want to import. If the PDF file has multiple pages or images, click the thumbnail of the page or file you want to place.
Note:
Use the Thumbnail Size menu to adjust the thumbnail view in the preview window. The Fit Page option fits one thumbnail in the preview window. A scroll bar appears if there are multiple items.
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Under Options, choose from the Crop To menu to specify what part of the PDF or Illustrator (AI) document to include:
Bounding Box
Crops to the smallest rectangular region that includes all the text and graphics of the page. This option eliminates extraneous white space.
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To automatically rasterize the art when pasting it into a Photoshop document, turn off the PDF and the AICB (No Transparency Support) options in the File Handling & Clipboard preferences.
To paste the art as a Smart Object, rasterized image, path, or shape layer, turn on the PDF and the AICB (No Transparency Support) options in the File Handling & Clipboard preferences.
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In Photoshop, open the document that you want to paste the Adobe Illustrator art into and then choose Edit > Paste.
Note:
If the PDF and the AICB (No Transparency Support) options are turned off in the File Handling & Clipboard preferences of Adobe Illustrator, the art is automatically rasterized as it’s pasted into the Photoshop document. You can skip the rest of the steps in this procedure.
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Smart Object
Pastes the art as a Vector Smart Object that can be scaled, transformed, or moved without degrading the image. As the art is placed, its file data is embedded in the Photoshop document on a separate layer.
Pixels
Pastes the art as pixels that can be scaled, transformed, or moved before it is rasterized and placed on its own layer in the Photoshop document.