Vector art pasted into Photoshop appears pixelated?

Hi, neener!

It sounds like the process of copying/pasting the art into Photoshop should be modified a little. Have you tried exporting your InDesign document as a PDF then importing it into Photoshop? Photoshop will ask you at what resolution the import should be done at, thereby rasterizing your vector illustrations for use in Photoshop and beyond.

If you don’t want your art rasterized, I would suggest exploring Photoshop’s menus. I don’t have Photoshop open in front of me right now, but I would expect there to be some kind of dialog that lets you control display settings, kind of like InDesign’s way of displaying images on a page – Performance, Fast, or Perfect (whatever they are). Your problem might be that the pasted smart objects are being displayed poorly on your screen but will print just fine. Good luck!

Are you sure they haven’t been rasterized? It usually announces it when doing so.
Were the objects originally made as Illustrator files? Pasting from Illustrator may be easier.
Paste as smart object retains vector art. Paste as pixels will rasterize, Paste as path or shape will also retain vector. One suggestion, the screen may draw it so it looks crude in a small size, but as you zoom in you will see the shape is a perfect vector

Why not just saving it as a PNG and then open it in Photoshop?

Photoshop works on pixels, Illustrator is vector. Usually rasterizing does the trick, but the result can depend on the quality of the image, the dpi and scaling as well. It often happens when the image is enlarged in photoshop.

Thanks, everyone.
@camertron: I tried importing a pdf from InD into PS, but the same pixelization occurred. I will check PS’s menus, like you suggested. And my file prints just as it appears on screen—quite grainy.
@anartist: Yes, I’m sure the image hasn’t been rasterized, and I am placing them as smart objects. My process used to work great and as I’d zoom in (like you suggested), it would be a crisp and clear vector image. But something has changed and now my vector image is very pixelated, which makes no sense!
@bstar3: Thanks, this worked! I had to do it through Illustroator instead of InD, but as long as it works, that’s fine with me!
I think I am set now with the png files, I’ll just have to change my process. Thank you!

Check the image size & resolution in Photoshop. Should be set to 300 dpi at whatever size in inches you need. Then paste the Illustrator art as a Smart Object and it should look fine.

Have you somehow turned off anti-aliasing?
That is adding a little color transition fuzz to the line to minimize pixelation.

I had this problem and have been searching all over for an answer. Similar to the OP, for awhile now I’ve been pasting vector objects into Photoshop with no problems, everything looked nice and smooth when pasted either as a smart object or as pixels. Out of the blue, I all of the sudden started getting very jagged, pixelated images when pasted at any resolution as smart objects, pixels, whatever… It didn’t make any sense, especially when I KNEW the process worked just fine before.

The solution I finally figured out for my situation was fairly simple. Somehow “Anti-alias” had become unchecked in the pasting options. After you choose whether you want to paste as a Smart Object, Pixels, etc. you are able to resize/rotate the object and apply the pasted settings. Make sure the “Anti-alias” box is checked when you apply the paste settings and your images should look nice and smooth, even if you made the pasted vector larger before hitting the checkmark (or enter).

Obviously if you zoom in more than 100% you’ll notice pixels (you are pasting into a raster document), but it won’t be hard jagged edges anymore. Hope this helps!

If your object isn’t aligned to pixels in Illustrator and then you paste it into Photoshop then it’ll appear misaligned, so some of the pixel edges will dither where it sits between two pixels. I’ve ha a huge nightmare with this in the past. If you just select your object in Illustrator and make sure the ‘Align to pixel grid’ in the transform pane is checked it should be ok.