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Fading edges of photos in Illustrator

JLD984

New Member
Hi All, wondering if there's a way to fade the edges of photos in Illustrator to transparency? I need a photo on a white vehicle and it won't look much good cropped. Any help appreciated.
 

scott pagan

New Member
see if this makes sense...

take your (placed high res link) image file, draw a gradient fill box (default settings ok for now), select both objects, go to transparency palate and choose make opacity mask. you should see the gradient fill becomes a transparency faded mask. you may have to tweak the gradient fill to get the desired results. another tip: in the transparency palate tab there is the selection tool for the object and the mask, be aware of which object layer is active and what object is being adjusted. after you play with a bit you'll understand. then click back to base object before moving on to edit any other objects (if transparency mask layer is active, no other objects can be edited).
 

peavey123

New Member
you can with gradients and transparency as stated above, but the best way is to incorporate photoshop into your workflow.

How I do it is I open my photo in photoshop and place the photoshop file into illustrator, but link the image. Do not embedd. Then when you make changes in photoshop such as a layer mask to fade out the image and save, it immediately makes the change in illustrator. It's a big time saver, trust me and you can get way better results.
 

scott pagan

New Member
i agree w Peavy that it's easier and cleaner to do in photoshop.

just remember when you link, you need to keep the high res photoshop file with your print files when not embedded. linking files allows your print "master file" to keep within a reasonable size, which helps speed in RIP processing.
 
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