problems with photoshop clipping path in InDesign

[johnderek]

I am having problems with the Photoshop clipping path on an image I have placed in InDesign. In photoshop I created a transparent image via the magic wand tool and the export transparent image wizard. When selecting the part of the image to be made transparent (the background), I have tried messing with the tolerance levels and the anti-aliased toggle, but I cannot get the path to perfectly outline the pixels. When I place in ID it looks great against background objects until i apply a drop shadow to the clipping path. When i do this there is a small white outline between the object and the drop shadow. I tried Inseting the clipping path frame a little (like .001&quot but i cuts out the edges of my image. When I raise the tolerance in Photoshop the clipping path appears wavy on what should be a relatively strait line.

Any Ideas?
Thanks!

 

[jimoblak]

What the #$^&! are you using clipping paths for? That is soooo 20th century.

InDesign can handle Photoshop transparency, meaning that you can have a Photoshop PSD image layer feather out to transparency - - this is impossible with clipping paths. Forget the export transparent image wizard and just make a background-less PSD file.


- - picklefish - -

 

[johnderek]

I guess i never thought of using PSD files in InDesign. I started this catalog using PM so all my files had to be .tif, plus that is the default file type for our digital camera. I edited out the background to all my images using the polygonal lasso tool and simply deleting the backgrounds. How do I go about making a background-less PSD file? Step-by-step, how would I accomplish this? It is still possible if I have already edited my images?

Thanks for your help!

 

[jimoblak]

To create transparency, here's what can be done on future images in Photoshop...
*Load the image.
*Double-click on the layer in the layers palette to make it a real layer.
*Do you background selection as usual and hit delete as usual. Instead of deleting to a background color, you have deleted to transparency (as shown with a checkerboard).
*Save as a PSD file.

To shrink your clipping path so the halo does not appear, here's what can be done on existing images in Photoshop...
*Open the image that you have created with the Transparent Image Exporter.
*Find the paths palette and select the clipping path
*In the paths palette's flyout menu (upper right corner), choose Make Selection.
*Once the selection is made, go to the Select menu>Modify>Contract and choose to contract the selection by 1 pixel (2 or 3 if you have a major halo around the image.
*Choose Make Work Path in the paths palette's flyout menu.
*Name the work path
*Use the flyout menu one last time to choose Clipping Path - - then choose the smaller path you just made.
*Resave the image


It might be a good idea to set up an action to pull these off.

- - picklefish - -