How to make photoshop paths visible in Illustrator

Question

I work with images from various manufacturers of construction equipment and need to be able to put a stroke around the images at times. I have images from one manufacturer that are eps files with paths and they work fine but I have another manufacturer who supplies the images as tif files with paths and they do not appear in illustrator. Is there some trick to importing the images so that the paths are usable. Do I need to ask this question in the Photoshop forum instead?

Answer 1

>...eps files with paths
>...tif files with paths
I assume you are referring to clipping paths, which are created in Photoshop and saved with EPS and TIFF files.
Unfortunately, Illustrator does not recognize clipping paths in TIFF files. Page layout (DTP) applications, such as InDesign and QuarkXpress, do recognize TIFF (as well as EPS) file clipping paths, but, alas, not Illustrator.
If you receive TIFFs with embedded clipping paths, just open them in Photoshop and resave as EPS -- or, better yet, create the desired background transparency in Photoshop and save as PSD for placing into Illustrator.
If you need to do things to the clipping path itself, such as stroking, you can do it in Photoshop or use Export | Paths to Illustrator. Note that the latter creates an .ai file containing only the path, nothing else. But you can combine that path with the original image within Illustrator, creating, if necessary, your own clipping mask.
If you don't have Photoshop, have your supplier save as EPS (or TIFF or PSD)
and export the paths. That will give you the greatest flexibility within Illustrator.