Maintaining Text Formatting When Copying

Vincent wrote:

We often have to lay out all our text in Photoshop (along with the graphics), and then, later in the process, copy all text in InDesign for the final layout. The problem, as you would expect, is that InDesign doesn’t retain formatting from Photoshop or Illustrator when pasting. Do you know a way to bring text from Photoshop to InDesign with retained formatting and still be able to edit the text in InDesign?

You’d think that something as simple as copying and pasting formatting text from one application to another would be simple — especially among applications in the Creative Suite! But no, there is simply no good way to copy and paste formatted text from Photoshop to InDesign. Or even Illustrator to InDesign! Sure, the text is pasted just fine, but all the formatting is stripped away.

Curiously, you can copy and paste formatted text between Photoshop and Illustrator… or even between these programs and After Effects. But not InDesign. The reason ostensibly has to do with how these programs handle text internally, but I would say the reality of the situation is that not enough people have complained to Adobe about this rather bizarre limitation.

By the way, my guess is that Adobe probably got caught up in “well, if we can’t figure out a way to copy and paste formatted text perfectly among these applications, then we just won’t let them do it at all.” They often get nervous that customers will complain if they don’t implement something perfectly. That’s why I usually try to explain, when making suggestions, that even a partial solution is better than no solution at all. For example, I would be fine with Illustrator or Photoshop just putting plain RTF on the clipboard. That would solve most people’s problems, even though it wouldn’t keep all the text formatting you can set in these programs. What do you think?

Comments (29)

Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name *

Email *

Website

Loading comments...