Line Art Conversions

Does anyone have a PS3 tutorial for converting product images to line art? I'm trying to create close-up views of small products (glass vials, screws etc.) for a few different brochures my client wants to create.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Ken

I am a Freehand user from 1993 until 2003 when I switched from PC to Mac for my own machine. Macromedia never offered a crossgrade price and I never bought FGS for the Mac. I've grudgingly used Illustrator since 1995--most of the places I've worked have been Illustrator shops. I garnered a good deal of experience with Illustrator over that time and hated it the whole time, but pretty much had no choice after the Macromedia buyout. Since then I have little justification for investing money in Freehand MX and none for convincing employers and clients to switch over to a "dead" application. So I've now been using Illustrator and cursing at it for a couple years
So keep that in mind when I say this: CS4 is the first version of Illustrator that I'm actually happy to move to. If there were a future for Freehand, I very well might still be moving to Illustrator now. From my perspective, CS4 is where Illustrator moved from behind Freehand in every way except market position to being ahead of Freehand.
Or I could have said this more concisely as Freehand fan says: Illustrator CS3, Boo. Illustrator CS4 Yay!.

Similar Messages

Is there a filter or plug-in for Photoshop CS6 that will allow me to convert a photo into line art?

Image conversion to line art...how in Photoshop?

Good day!
You may want to test the Adobe Illustrator trial.
Regards,
Pfaffenbichler

Thin white line between line art and live paint fill?

I am using live paint to paint cartoon character illustrations. The artwork is brought into Illustrator CS3 and live traced. Then I convert it to a live paint group and use the paint bucket to fill. Everything looks fine no matter how much I zoom in. If I bring the AI file into Photoshop CS6 I can see a thin white line between the black line art and the fill. This is most noticeable where black meets black. I can also see this sometimes in file previews while browsing through files. If the white line cannot be seen in Illustrator is the file ok? I did just upgrade to CS6 if that would make a difference.
Thank you for any help.

If the white line cannot be seen in Illustrator is the file ok?
Without knowing specifics,nobody knows.
"Okay" for what?
If it looks okay to you in Illustrator, then it's okay for viewing in Illustrator.
If the export of it does not look okay in Photoshop at 1:1 or higher zoom, then it's probably not okay for whatever you're going to do with that raster image.
If it's printed to a low-res composite printer, then it may be okay, because the printer may not be able to resolve the whitish pixels.
If it's printed for commercial (color-separated) reproduction, it may not be okay, depending on the scale at which it will be printed, and on other considerations partially described below.
The autotrace routine does not build traps. Typically, when you color-fill cartoon line art manually, you don't make the shapes that define the fills merely "kiss" the black line work, as would the default treatments of a stupid autotrace. The black line work typically overprints the fills, thereby creating printing traps.
Suppose a portion of your cartoon is a hand-drawn closed circle. The black line work is irregular; it varies in width, having been drawn with a marker or a brush. The circle is colored in with a medium green. There are no sloppy gaps in the original between the green and the black.
You scan it and autotrace it. Unless you apply some deliberate care to make it do otherwise, the autotrace is going to create a compound path, filled with black, and with no stroke; and a green simple path which (hopefully) exactly "kisses" (abuts) the black path. Adobe's on-screen antialiasing of the edge where the two colors abut may or may not cause your monitor to display a faint whitish or grayish sliver between the two colors.
Similarly, Photoshop's rasterization of it, or the rasterization of a raster export filter may do the same, and may actually result in some off-color pixels along the edge. (Your description of the scenario kinda raises the question of why you are auto-tracing something that you're then just going to rasterize in Photoshop anyway. Why do that? Why not just work with the scan in Photoshop?.)
So let's leave Photoshop out of the picture and assume you are autotracing it because you want vector artwork. You zoom way in to see if the whitish sliver enlarges. It doesn't, so you assume it's just an aberation of Illustrator's on-screen antialising. And then someone tells you you're in the clear. But are you? Not so fast.
Let's assume the artwork is destined for commercial (color-separated) printing. Further assume the color of the autotraced black is 100% K, and the color of the autotraced green is 100Y 50C. Three inks involved. None of those three inks are shared between the two objects. So even if the paths do, in fact, perfectly abut, there is no "wiggle room" built in for the minor alignment shifts that almost aways do occur on press.
Bottom line: Even if you do determine that the common antialiasing aberations that frequently occur on-screen in Adobe apps is just that—just an onscreen aberation, that does not necessarily mean your file is suitable for commercial color-separated reproduction.
First, you need to understand that autotracing is not the one-click, instant "conversion" of a raster image to vector artwork that far too many think it to be. Just like everything else, you don't just launch a program like Illustrator, start autotracing things willy-nilly without understanding what's really going on. Just like anyting else, you can use an autotrace feature intelligently or...well...not.
You have options. Illustrator provides an auto-trapping feature. Read up on it in the documentation so you understand what it's all about. Alternatively, you can expand the results of your autotrace, select all the black linework and apply a composite color that includes 100% K and reasonable percentages of C, M, and Y (a so-called "rich black"). Or,depending on the artwork and the desired results, you may consider doing the autotrace as centerlines so you have stroked paths, not just filled paths for the linework. That way, using the flood fill (so called LivePaint) will cause the auto-created fill objects to extend to the paths, not just to the edges of their strokes. Then set the linework to overprint.
At any rate, if you are doing this professionally, you need to read up on the principles and practices of trapping and color separation.
JET

Pagemaker line art loses quality when opened in ID

Hi,
I have a small booklet which I created some years ago in PageMaker 6.5. Each page is 11 x 17 inches black and white. I would like to redo some of the pages and create new ones in InDesign. I have at this point no significant experinece working with In Design.
Initially I was just hopeful to be able to print the old pages from InDesign since the computer with PageMaker is probably on limted time. When I try to open the PageMaker file they do open, but the line art illustrations which were "fine line" art of boat profiles turn into very crude looking art. They look like they were drawn with a crayon. Is there something that is controlling the quality of these illustrations when opened or imported? Is there any way to get back to at least the original quality that I see in PageMaker?
I'd like to have the original pages to at least use as a starting pong.
Thanks,
chuck

Hi
Thank you all for your help. I thought I'd post a short response to what I've since found out and a link that was helpful in doing so. As I said because of my lack of experience both with PageMaker and with InDesign I reslly didn't understand how the original PageMaker files were set up nor did I remember how I originally made them.
Searching, I found this link called "Processing Adobe Pagemaker Files for Conversion to Adobe InDesign". http://www.ideastraining.com/PDFs/ProcessingPgMkrFiles.pdf
It walked me through identifying what I had and how to correct it. It turns out that the page had a number of embedded graphics that had links that were no capable of updating for various reasons. A number of the graphics were also in .gif format which apparently InDesign didn't accommodate. So in trying to open these pages, InDesign dumped the original graphics and only left a crude tiff image which is what I was seeing.
I could try to salvage the sheets, but there are so many small problems that I think it's best to bite the bullet and just redo them. Going through the excercise with the help of the link above, however, 1) educated me in what I really had and 2) helped me to locate the original graphics which were on my computer but I didn't recognize. They were all clearly identified in the Links Manager. I simply didn't realize they had originally been linked. That at least allows me to find the original art then message or convert it as necessary in Photoshop or Illustrator.
I've made a template and now I'm just going to start one page at a time.
I just wanted to post the link above in the hopes it may help someone else.
Again thanks for the quick response and thoughtful replies to my question.
chuck

Pixelated Line Art in Photo Gallery

Hi
I am designing a photo gallery that externally loads jpegs
via XML. I have an actionscript that allows the jpegs to randomly
rotate at an angle as they load onto the stage. The jpegs contain
mostly logos that are line art. It works great but the images are
pixelated when they are at an angle since they are logos/line art.
I can't seem to find a solution to solve this pixelation problem. I
tried loading gif files instead but for some reason gifs does not
load correctly.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Hi dzedward
Thanks for your reply. I attempted to create an
emptyMovieClip and applied cacheAsBitmap in context of the
actionScipt that already exist in the file. I tried to follow the
examples in the Flash 8 documentation but failed. The photo gallery
I am editing from can be downloaded here:
http://www.ffiles.com/flash/photo_galleries/xml_gallery_2/
Please help. Thanks

Sending line art to Photoshop?

Illustrator CS4 on Snow Leopard.
I have a truly vexing Illustrator problem. It seems like a simple challenge, though.
I have a large black and white vector illustration. There are no grays, only black and white line art.
I'd like to send only the black line art to Photoshop with the white areas treated as transparency.
Photoshop treats the un-filled areas as transparency, while it treats the white Illustrator fills as solid white.
Ordinarily I would simply outline my strokes and do some pathfinder operations to subtract the white fills from the black.
In this instance, though, there are hundreds of paths: blacks above whites in the stack, whites above blacks, etc. so going through pathfinder commands one path at a time seems almost impossible.
I've also tried re-coloring all blacks as Pantone spots and printing a color rip to PDF. Same problem: Photoshop treats white fills as solid white.
So... is there something I'm missing. Is there an easy way to separate my black lines and bring them to Photoshop?

Outline all the strokes and then use pathfinder Merge. Afterwards select and delete the white objects.

Line art problem outputting to pdf

I have a problem with exporting pages of a magazine going to print as pdf, relating to line art placed on the page as a bitmap tiff (typically at 1200 ppi). At present I have a workaround for an annoying problem that really needs clearing up ...
I'm using CS4 InDesign and Acrobat (files prepared in Photoshop). So, high-res bitmap tiff containing line art sized (that is, just placed - no resizing in Indesign) and placed in Indesign, looks fine on the page. Output to pdf using 'export' and the resulting file, when viewed on screen, has a thin line down the right-hand edge of any and all bitmap files.
To ensure no misunderstanding, the 'bitmap' reference is what Photoshop calls it - a bilevel file with black lines in it, which enables me easily to overlay other files such as a photo (because the file is black/transparent) and assign a colour or tint to the bitmap, or even a drop shadow etc. I've used this workflow for years, from Photoshop through Indesign, but the latter always gives me this line on the right edge, in the pdf. It did this in CS3 Indesign/Acrobat as well (but never in Pagemaker).
My workaround is to lay a white-filled box over the edge of the file, thus masking it. But of course, that also limits me to where I can place the file - not easily on a graded tint background, not on a photo and so on. So I'd like to solve this.
Any ideas? OS is Win XP Pro (all updates applied to this and the CS programs - I don't believe they make a difference to this problem, as it has existed through several iterations of both OS and CS).
Anyone else seen this effect? Or is it just me? And has anyone a potential solution?
Chris

I think by reason of not knowing what else I can do, I'm heading to the same conclusion - put up with it! I'll certainly try sending a line to print and see if it appears, but for on-screen stuff, I think I have to stick with the safe workaround I use and accept the layout limitations. (Or resort to Pagemaker for the pages that I just cannot do otherwise.)
Seems to me, if people have reported this for years, Adobe might have tried sorting it out. On screen or not, it still must be due to *something* in the file and/or Acrobat/Distiller to allow it to appear. If I create a white greyscale tiff with the same resolution etc, and place it on a page, there's no line down the edge on output - just a white page with a white (invisible) box. If I do this with an 'empty' bitmap file, a line appears ... Both files created in Adobe programs, so it's not me as a user ...
Just me whinging! I'm really coming from the angle that if this is indeed a display problem, it can only be a display problem if there is something in the file for the display to react to (badly phrased that!).
Thanks everyone for your support and ideas - I think that's me finished for now; I have files to upload and then sleep.

Line art filter shimmer

hi all - I have applied the line art filter to a short clip and the effect is perfect when it's not playing - but when it plays there is a shimmer in areas of the image. The clips are 640 X 480, 30 fps, progressive. The FCP timeline setting is for Photo JPEG. They are color corrected for brightness and contrast with a smidge of saturation in FCP and then sent to Motion. I have played with all the parameters with no luck and looked for another filter to reduce the shimmer to no avail.
Anybody know of a way to get rid of this shimmer?

Depending on your settings, the Line Art plugin tends to amplify noise by "outlining" all the differences, which change slightly, frame to frame...
Patrick

Anyone have experience using high-res files (eg line art) in Aperture?

As I found at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1741287&tstart=0 it seems that Aperture will choke on files over a certain size. I'll grant, I tried something that is outside the scope of Aperture---I tried using it to store a workflow starting with a scan rather than a photo. The scan is higher resolution than most digital photos (as line art must be).
Does anyone have any experience with high-resolution photos or scans? I'm talking over a hundred MB, possibly upwards of a gigabyte. These are precisely the sort of files that I want to create lower-res versions for specific applications and have them be linked to the master file.

I tried to use Aperture with my line art scans in the early versions of Aperture, but gave it up because Aperture did not seem to handle the file size.
Instead I use another workflow for my artwork, Bridge, Photoshop, Illustrator and Version Cue in combination with Extensis Portfolio. This is a very pleasing solution for me and I would recommend it to others to try out as well.
For me, Aperture is used for managing and adjusting my photographs.
Regards
Paul K

Creating line art in photoshop

Hi all,
I have experimented with various tutorials and filters in photoshop hoping to replicate the clean smooth lines of the line art type image below (image based of a photo I presume).
Does anyone know or can provide me with some tutorials on how to do such work.
Any help would be great

Probably done with the Trace function in a vector program.
Similar results are possible but difficult with Photoshop.

Convert photo to line art?

Dear Forum,
I am trialing Elements and Illustrator but cannot find a solution in help or the forums, or any book at Borders, so I hope someone can help. I am looking for a way to convert photos (JPEGS) of flowers to black line art......like a coloring book, not just black and white or grayscale or sylhouette. I will then print out the line art (1-2 pixel black line art) to clear acetate for use as a positive original for creating a silkscreen via photo emulsion exposure (and then silkscreen printing the line art to fabric for hand painting). I am doing this by hand now.....place a sheet of acetate over the photo and outlining "edges" by eye with a fine Sharpie, then using that as the positive original. See attached file for an example. The line art needs to be relatively detailed ( e.g. petals, stamen, leaves) but not absolutely perfect as I only need to print guide lines on fabric for subsequent hand painting. It seems easy to do by "eye", tracing edges of color or tone change, but I have not figured out how to make that happen in Elements or Illustrator. Of course I have only had the trial for a couple days, and have used live trace, posterization, etc, but have not been lucky. Please point me in the right direction. If I can make this happen with an Adobe product, then I will buy it.....I have hundreds of photos to convert. Thanks.....Bob

If you use Threshold, you can add some gaussian blur to the image to make the edges smoother. You can also add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer between the blurred image and the threshold layer to fine tune the edges.
If you have Windows, you might want to look at Medhi's Fine Threshold filter (freeware) found here:
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/english/finethreshold.htm
Edit: You could also use Find Edges on the image first; desaturate it; then use a threshold adjustment layer. Go back to the Find Edges layer and add gaussian blur to taste. To further fine tune, slip a brightness/contrast layer between the blurred image and the threshold to control line thickness/detail. (FWIW, I would make a copy of the Find Edges layer and blur the duplicate so if you change your mind you don't have to start the project from scratch.)

Line Art in PSE (7)

My projects typically involve doing pencil sketches on paper and then scanning them in. I used to be able to use special line art tools that would allow me to create special lines and curve them with each line segment as I worked around digitally inking my picture using old demos and programs my friends had. PSE does not seem to have a line art draw feature, but instead has "draw polygon shape" which includes a draw line, but that creates new layers as I work with it, and the lines cannot be curved and must be straight.
Is there any way I can take my scanned pencil art and digitally ink it easier without having to use the pencil/brush freehand tool?

Does Ctrl+S/Command-S. work for file>save?, Ctrl+Shift+S/Command-Shift-S for file>save as? NO
Do you have a file selected if you have more than one open? YES
None of the above works. Save or Save As is not listed under file or edit. ???
Thanks

How can I easily change black line art to a colour? (Or color?)

I have line art on a transparent layer. That is, it's not part of a white layer, but just black on nothing. I want to easily change that to a colour without changing the quality of the line. I know I can put a screen layer above it with a colour and that makes the black coloured, but it only shows up if I flatten it on to white. Otherwise, that's exactly the look I want, just not on a flattened white layer. I need to keep the line on the transparent layer so that I can paint under it, so I can't flatten it on to white. I also don't want to select the line and fill it as that significantly changes the quality of the line. I just want to change the colour of the line without chaning it's density, or any pixels. Any idea how to do this?

I believe your layer with lines has pure black pixels with transparency producing it's gray appearance. An adjustment can't make black blacker than black
A mask is grayscale without transparency. So if you convert the transparency to a mask, you have grayscale pixels in the mask which can be affected by an adjustment. The result will be a change in the appearance of the masked layer.

PSE 7 Need to transparent the background of a line art logo and name

PSE7 How do I make the background transparent behind a line art logo (a lily and my name)? There used to be a tutorial about a line art map in black and white, but I can't find it. Thanks.

There are several ways. One way:
1. Select>All
2. Edit>Copy
3. add a black color solid fill layer
4. alt (option) click on the layer mask in the layers panel
5. Edit>Paste (your pasting into the layer mask)
6. Filter>adjustments>invert (invert the layer mask) Ctrl(cmd)-I
That gives your logo on transparency (the logo will be black, so if you want to change the color, you clip a color fill layer)
transparent:
on color:
layers:
color changed (solid color clipped ) Layer>Create Clipping Mask
Message was edited by: R_Kelly

Using Reader XI (eleven). Line art in download file has turned black. How do I get line art back?

I am using Reader XI (eleven). I have downloaded my Nikon S9700 camera resource manual (pdf) and now all the line art appears as black images. How do I restore the line art? Document was created in Adobe 5.X. I have downloaded most recent version of camera manual and same condition exists.

Answered my own question: Under Preferences> Accessibility> Document Color Options I had selected "Replace Document Colors". Don't you love it when things work out?

Line Art Conversions

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