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Illustrator file flattened when saved as .PSD (when 'write layers" is clicked on export)

Windows 10 Photoshop 22.4.3, Illustrator 25.3.1
When I export an Adobe Illustrator file as a .PSD and click "write layers", the file is flattened when I open it in Photoshop. The layers are not being retained.

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  • Sergey Osokin commented  ·   ·  Report

    After many years, Photoshop CC 2022 inserts Adobe Illustrator layers from the clipboard. For older versions of Creative Cloud, I made a script "Ai2Psd", which processes elements to export to PSD. There are other ways with their own pros and cons, which I wrote an article on Medium "How to export an Illustrator file into a vector layered Photoshop file": https://sergosokin.medium.com/how-to-export-a-illustrator-file-into-a-vector-layered-photoshop-file-2dcc274abf66

    (Edited by admin)
  • Anthony Topper commented  ·   ·  Report

    Exporting to PSD from Illustrator seems utterly bug-ridden. I've tried hundreds of experiments. I am really surprised that such a mature piece of software has what seems like a critical feature work so poorly. And I am surprised to see so few votes for this issue.

    I think too many users have given up and now just work around the problem in much more manual ways.

    The AI2PSD open-source script might help, but it doesn't work for all cases.
    As other comments mention, AI2PSD might help but only works sometimes.

  • AdminEgor Chistyakov (Admin, Adobe Illustrator) commented  ·   ·  Report

    You should provide a file, because this is most certain depends on its content.
    The problem is well-known and there is a script that tries to workaround it and does it beautifully:
    https://github.com/creold/ai-to-psd
    Can’t recommend it enough.
    The problem is very painful though, I call everyone to vote. Even Affinity Designer, an external app from a non-Adobe, handles this better, which is a shame.

  • jayse commented  ·   ·  Report

    This could be related to a VERY OLD Bug in all Illustrator versions win and mac where, if you have a sub layer or element or group set to screen mode (or some other blend modes etc.) - it flattens the PSD. VERY annoying and tricky to hunt down.

  • Brian commented  ·   ·  Report

    1. Adobe Illustrator CC 2018
    2. Export in Illustrator as a PSD with retained layers
    3. Expected the same document to appear in Photoshop with all layers as it appears in Illustrator
    4. Some of the Vectors distorted as they were saving as a PSD

  • Sarah Khan (Illustrator team) commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi,

    I am unable to reproduce the issue at my end. Can you please provide us the file and the system info by mailing it to : share with ai (at) adobe.com
    - Please remove spaces from share with ai and replace (at) with @

    Thanks

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    Exporting an artboard to PSD now flattens the image even though layered export is selected.

    File > Export > Export As.. > type "PSD"
    Write layers - selected
    preserve text editability - checked
    maximum editability - checked

    Same process as before updating to v22.0.1

    Previously it exported all the elements as separate layers perfectly, now it flattens everything

Illustrator (Desktop) Bugs: File Save, Import and Export

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