Vector a photo?!?

Hey everybody...WhatsUp?!
Listen, quick ?....
How can I convert a photo (.jpg) to vector based using Illustrator without losing quality?
This is especially important because I've started printing a lot of large-format stuff, i.e. wall-scapes billboards etc.
Oftentimes I don't really get the desired result using the "High Quality Photo" preset in LiveTrace.

It doesn't get a whole lot better than Live Trace in Illustrator for automated tracing, although I admit that I haven't tried everyting. The main problem you might run into is the paths might become too complicated or there isn't enough contrast to do the job correctly. The less you can spend on outsourcing the more valuable you are so I usually don't do that unless it is truly something out of my skill set…
pbc

Similar Messages

Can´t copy vector from Illustrator to Edge Animate

In the newest version this should be a function, but nothing happens for me when I copy the object in Illustrator and try to paste it in Edge Animate. Any help?
Another question would be why the filters are even among the tools in Edge when they don´t work on anything, neither vectors not photos.. and also, texts often don´t end up correct in the preview. Seriously, I work as a graphic news designer professionally and pay money for your products. This is not OK.

That´s how you went about it in the older versions. In the New 2014 Edge you´re supposed to be able to just ctrl+C a vector from Illustrator and ctrl-V it in Edge. That´s one of the big new features. But nothing happens for me and there doesn´t seem to be any one else who experiences this problem since I haven´t found anything on it when googling.
Thanks anyway.

Can Live Trace be added back for complex B&W illustration vectorizing?

Image Trace might work great for vectorizing color photos, but it is terrible at vectorizing complex B&W illustrations. Live Trace in CS2-CS5 was great at this. It's crazy that a new feature would break a previous functionality.
This is a pen & ink style illustration I was going to vectorize so that it would be easier to set up for a t-shirt:
As you can see from this comparison image, Live Trace does a much better job at converting this illustration to vector. It's very close to the original and has a very clean appearance. After trying every setting possible, this is the best result I could manage in Image Trace:
It seems like Image Trace can't handle the complexity that Live Trace used to work so well with. I noticed if I cropped out just the chicken, Image Trace did a better job with just that part of it. Live Trace could handle the entire thing, though, and cropping an image in to sections just adds more steps and more work.
Whatever engine Live Trace used to have, please please please add it back in for B&W art vectorizing. Right now I have to keep my old copy of CS4 installed just so I can use Live Trace. It seems like this is a problem that people have been mentioning: http://forums.adobe.com/message/5908553

Thanks for taking the time to comment, rcraighead.
Your version does look better, I agree, but the higher threshold is filling in a lot of details with black (like the eyes). The feathered lines are also rounding off at the ends, which happens in Image Trace, but never was a problem in Live Trace. It kind of gives it a "stamped" feel, like the ink is bleeding over.
The original image is about 8.5 x 11, 300 ppi. I guess I'll just have to keep CS4 installed to use Live Trace. I tweeted at Adobe Illustrator with my issue and they told me to post here

Help on resizing text boxes and general image techniques

Using CS2.
I have two basic questions. One has to do with getting the best vector images (with text) that I can for placement in InDesign documents. The other has to do with the specifics of working with text boxes in FW.
The easiest way for me to produce vector images has been by using PowerPoint. I do all the graphics work and then save it as a gif. I do cropping in a graphics tool (Irfanview, PS) and then insert or place the image. As long as there is no resizing, things work well. I'm not sure how things like DPI are controlled using this technique but I'm assuming that also would be done with the graphics tool. I know Irfanview allows for the dpi to be specified during resizing.
The problem starts to show up when the gif object is resized. Things get distorted and I lose the crispness of the image contents. I'm certainly not an expert on graphics however I've been thinking I either need to 1) make the actual size of graphics in PP the size of the final placed image so there is no resizing (just some cropping) or 2) to work in a tool like FW where (I'm assuming) there are better capabilities to resize vector graphics. My sense (again, not an expert) is that the process I'm using converts to vector graphics in PP to a bitmap image in the gif and that resizing doesn't work as well for bitmaps as for vector objects. Do I have that right?
Moving on to question 2:
Can text boxes be resized in FW without distorting the text? Can their size be seen when originally drasing them? Perhaps spoiled by PowerPoint, I like to set the width of vector objects (e.g. rectangle) and the width of the text that will fill it to the same size. (I know PP has the ability to put borders on text boxes but when working in FW I need to work with 2 objects, the rectangle and the text box). Say I have a rectangle that is 81px wide. Can I set a text box to 81px wide without distorting the text?
I tend to want to control actual object sizes so I can get good spacial alignment. For example, I tend to set the width of a text object to an odd number of px so that any line coming out of the text object aligns well with the text. I must admit that it may be time for me to use a different technique in FW (e.g. more alignment of multiple objects vs. knowing dimensions and seting locations). Does my approach need improvement?
Thanks for any advice
Tom

As I wean off of PP I've started looking at FW and Illustrator (I have both). I've done a logo or two in FW and have used it to build some simple web graphics (e.g. buttons, menus). It can, as I recall, be a little more complex than what I need in this case.
Since PP is not a graphics program, its drawing capabilities are very limited. As a consequence, any graphics application will have many more features than you're used to seeing and more than you need for any one project.
I did a little experimenting with Illustrator and my first impression is that it will work better for me for this work. It seems a little more intuitive.
Is a general guideline to use FW for web-destined graphics and Illustrator for what I used to do in PP?
Your suggested guideline is good. Also, note that if you make a logo or vector graphic in Illustrator (saving as .ai format), you can import that into Fireworks and work with it as a vector object there. FW can import and use, just not create, .ai objectes and files.
FW has some vector tools, they are tucked away under Window > Others > Path. Since FW is intended for producing Web graphics, it is a hybrid application, capable of both vector and photo/image editing. Given that it has some of both, it necessarily doesn't have everything that Illustrator has nor everything that Photoshop has. It has most the features of both of those programs, as long as the feature is useful for a Web graphics designer. For pure photo editing Photoshop has the edge; for pure illustration, Illustrator has the edge. Both Photoshop and Illustrator support color profiles and other features important for print that Fireworks does not. All are good programs, but there are reasons to prefer one over the other depending on what kind of graphics you need to create or work with and what your intended use of the work is. (But any of them will be superior to PowerPoint! )
I'm not sure I can unravel the mystery with the text box resizing. I suspect theres an option selected. Knowing it can be done is enough for me to do some homework.
Maybe...don't think of text boxes at all. You have text objects. The object has a bounding box that is determined by the underlying definition of the font, but it isn't in a text box. (Sometimes swooshs will extend beyond the defining box of a character in the font, but that is another issue). The bounding box for the text object is similar to the bounding box of a circle or a star or an irregular shape. There's a reference box for the dimensions, but the text is not inside some other independent container.
To resize, select the text object and change the font size either using the Properties palette or using the scale tool to drag on a corner of the scaling outline (different from the bounding box, and I don't know why, sorry).
I think that,with Illustrator, you can define text boxes (or other shapes) and fill them with text. *searches* Ah.. Like these: http://school.tatoland.com/illustrator/aitype.html
cheers!
Lorraine

Is Illustrator CS5 performance better than Illustrator CS6?

There is a pretty sharp decline in smoothness of panning, zooming, dragging elements around the screen in Ai CS6.
Using both versions side by side on MacBook Pro i7, 8gb Ram, 10.6.8. Ai v16.0.0. The files are as small as 0-200k.
Ai CS6 is simply jumpy and laggy. Try a new blank artboard of 800x600 in both and drag around view at 100% zoom. The artboard skips around.
It's not unusable, but its there, and for me overshadows the improvements.
Thanks,
Brent

On an iMac 3.4ghz i7/16gb RAM - SL 10.6.8 here, and there is a definite "drag & scroll" lag... sometimes... and it's not necessarily * all Illustrators fault.
1) Try turning off Smart Guides and/or snapping. Depending on the artwork or background and what your trying to move, everything snaps all over the place.
2) Turn off any web streaming and/or close your browser. I tried listening to a radio stream with Firefox, and the Live stream in Quicktime player; both made Illustrator act up and become slow.
3) Those on a Mac may want to repair their permissions, do a restart of the Mac, and see if that clears up anything. Also, look into something like Onyx (free) that allows you to clean your font caches. Fonts = unbelievable after 20+ years that I find this to be the most common problem re: crashes in design software(!!!)
3) as mentioned earlier in the thread, turning off unnecessary processes may also help... but let's be real here: why should a "designer" need to be a tech-nerd and do that to get a "vector" program to work correctly?!? Freehand = 43mb ---- Ilustrator CS6: 261mb + Plugins 129mb = 390mb. And yet Freehand 11 could do more, better, and far easier "vector work" than Illustrator v.16 (CS6). Makes ya wonder... and shake your head a little.
* While there does seem to be some good things about CS6, there are still many (many!) areas for improvement, such as:
a) select a stroked path by it's appearance rather than having to first add the "Outline Stroke" effect;
b) a truly "smart" selection arrow with option toggle;
c) a panel and pointer that makes stars and rounded corners truly interactive, even single rounded corners (inDesign even!) and select points on stars and rounded corner boxes to change them. See Freehand's implementation that is over 16 years old... which even allows individual mixed corners, with negative numbers/curves... all starting from a single drawn box. Adobe owns the tech, code and patents, so why is this so difficult?
While I realize this is no place for a rant or program suggestions, I am going to ask why is CS6 even offered as a "suite"? So many overlapping features; so many, MANY completely different dialog boxes that are "supposed" to do the same exact thing.
Just 1 example:
the Scale dialog in inDesign and Illustrator -- in Illustrator hit "s" then return to get to the dialog...no go in ID... when you do get to the Scale dialog in ID... anemic!... no checkbox for scale strokes and effects, it just does it whether you want it or not.
Imagine a "suite" that used the same dialogs, didn't overlap features and functions**, but was module-based that switched toolsets to what you needed to do, or opened that lightweight module/program that did some things more advanced. Imagine Vector, Text, Photo, Film toolsets and modules that actually did the exact same thing in each suite program. That would be a start.
Question(s): can someone give me one good reason why "Photo Effects" belong in a vector program? Any "pro" knows that you are going to have a much finer control in Photoshop by creating your photo stuff there. Why doesn't Photoshop recognize the Illustrator data as vectors/paths, rather than rasterize them when opening the document?
Just on a closing note... I really believe and humbly suggest that Adobe needs to make a really tough choice after ironing out the bugs in CS6, and consider rewriting everything to use common frameworks, before even thinking about a CS7.
as is common.......... /rant.

Creating illustrations for large sizes, which software to use?

Hello everybody,
I'm an amateur, its my first discussion here,
My team from work will start a big project, we will build a space for visitors to an event. We will need several illustrations plots for the walls, the drawings has sizes like 6, 7 meters (width), with vectors and photos (jpeg, eps files). I have some experience with Ilustrator, but theres no way to create files larger than 577.95. Before I start, I want to hear your opinion about the best Adobe software to create these large size illustrations.

I second that. Setup your Illustrator File at 25%. Your Photoshop files will be 600ppi @ 25%; so their final ppi will be 150 @ 100%; suitable for large format digital printing. Raster/Document settings ( illustrator ) should be set for high res or custom where any raster effects will retain their appearance when scaled 400%. You might be able to prep your files @ 50%; if so, just adjust resolutions.

A very disappointed windows convert

Being a Windows based Graphic Designer (shock!!) I finally took the plunge and bought a Macbook Pro.
The Bootcamp was the deciding factor for me (I thought the transition would be painless). However, so far I have been very disappointed, I cannot seem to find any vector drawing, photo retouching or video editing software that justifies the switch, the choice of software is very limited and when I have found something to try, NOTHING seems to work on the Intel Macs, even Photoshop!!!?
Considering macs are de-facto for Graphic design, I am shocked...I am left with a very nice looking piece of kit that gets very hot, has a cool looking magnetic power adapter socket, a very slow and useless i-movie application (on paar with MS Movie maker) Itunes (available on XP), and a gimmicky Dock application which was ALSO available for windows anyway.
As for Bootcamp, I cannot tap the mouse track area to click like a mouse click, itunes crashes and XP seems more buggy (than usual)...
So all I’m left to do is use it for surfing the web!!..while I have temporarily gone back to using my trusty HP tablet PC.
Please tell I am missing something major here, and I have not just blown £1700.

First, never buy hardware. First you buy the software you need, then look for the hardware that runs the software. First rule of computer buying.
If you must use Window's software for your work, then why bother buying a Mac even if it can run Windows? Boot Camp is Beta software. No promise that it is fully functional or even fully reliable. If you expect everything to work under Boot Camp as though it were a true Window's machine, then you didn't read the caveats.
Photoshop works fine on Intel Macs, it's just slow because it is not a universal binary and must run through the Rosetta emulation. Nothing new here. These transitional concerns were addressed before the Intel Macs were ever released. Furthermore, Adobe has already announced they have no definitive time table for when their Mac software will be converted to universal binaries.
If you want high-end movie software buy Final Cut Pro. It seems to be satisfactory for Disney Studios and Pixar, so it should be adequate for your needs.
As for vector drawing tools there's Adobe Illustrator and VectorWorks. However, neither are universal binaries so they would run under Rosetta. EazyDraw is a universal binary, but I don't know if it meets your suitability standards.
There are literally dozens of photo touchup applications with varying degrees of ability. Seashore (http://seashore.sourceforge.net/universal.php) is a free opensource version of GIMP and is now available as a universl binary. It is Beta software. GIMP is also available with an universal binary application wrapper, but it will require installing the X11 subsystem to use with OS X.
You can find more Mac software at www.versiontracker.com or www.macupdate.com. For optimum performance on Intel Macs look for software that is provided as an universal binary or Intel-compatible.
Lastly, Yes, you are missing something. Next time do a little more research before you complain. And, next time you complain be more specific about what you need because that will make it easier for someone to better assist you. And, we all know what's available for Windows .... That's why most of us here own Macs.

Is there a way to import a vector file into Ideas? Not just a photo layer

I want to import an Illustrator vector file into a drawing layer in Adobe Ideas, not just the photo layer.
Seems like it should be a basic option for Ideas and the cloud. (Have the latest ipad etc in case technical issues matter).
Any answers here, or do I need to try another app like inkpad or sketchbook pro? I'm trying to stay inside the Adobe corral if possible. Just for convenience's sake...
Thanks

Hi Mk111111,
I'm not finding a way to import vector info from Illustrator as a drawing layer into Ideas. So I don't believe this currently possible. It is possible to go the other way, from Adobe Ideas into Illustrator.
I created a feature request based on your suggestion here:
http://forums.adobe.com/ideas/2549
-Dave

Can I import drawings and photos into Illustrator to create a vector image?

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What I bring to the software is my background in studio arts 2D and 3D. Photography is a tool to support both of these activities. Over the years that skill has developed and I have many great photos. The photos make me a little nuts now that I focus on digital. In digitals photos I easily have over 60,000 photos. I have some experience with Photoshop. I won’t say I am a proficient but will say I have good skills in it. I created my first logo in Photoshop. Of course it is not vector and I know it should be vector. I did it at no charge for a nonprofit. They were very pleased. I would still like to create a vector form of the logo. Awhile back I purchased a book titled “Illustrator CS5 on demand”. It breaks it down in a way that Illustrator is less intimidating. It has renewed my interest in Illustrator. How do I more effectively merge all of these tools and skills? How do I bring what I know to Illustrator’s table? I know there are great possibilities here if I can learn to build vector graphics.

Spencer,
Basically, you have two ways to go from raster images to vector artwork, namely to Live/Auto Trace and to redraw/recreate.
The former is (only) suitable for certain kinds of artwork/intended appearances, such as photolike.
The latter is the way to get simple/clean/smooth/accurate artwork that is truly scalable. In some cases you can use basic kinds of shapes such as circles/ellipses, squares/rectangles, (other) polygons, stars, spirals, and so on. In other cases you can draw with the Pen/Line/Pencil/Brush Tool, the first being the main general tool. You may place (File>Place) the original raster artwork (maybe in its own layer) and lock it, then recreate on top (maybe in another layer) so you can follow the original.

Why would my photos, vector art, and type be fuzzy in my object states?

All of a sudden we have noticed that the photo quality, vector art quality, and the type used in our object states is pixelated and fuzzy. I don't believe it was like this before because we would have noticed it. We have been publishing since March 2013 using the same templates. We are publishing in v25 and our app is v31.

If you need the text to remain sharp but the MSOs are graphic heavy, try this: http://boblevine.us/digital-publishing-suite-101-keep-text-sharp-in-raster-slideshows/

Can newer versions of Adobe Photo Shop convert a scanned in raster pdf to a vector pdf?

Can newer versions of Adobe Photo Shop convert a scanned in raster pdf to a vector pdf?
I scanned in a paper electrical schematic to Adobe Photo Shop and want to revise it in AutoCAD but to use an AutoCAD plug in, PDFIn, it must be a vector pdf as opposed to a raster pdf.
Is that possible?

Not in Photoshop, but you can try Live Trace in Illustrator.
You may have to try several different settings and compare the results. Also the cleaner the scan the better.
The results may vary from great to really bad.
Sometimes it is better and faster to simply recreate it Illustrator. You can use the scanned image as a partially dimmed template layer and redraw over it on new layers.
If you really need this to work in AutoCAD, try creating a small section as a test to see if the plug-in for AutoCAD that you mentioned works ok.

Photo to Vector - For T-Shirt Print

What is the best way to transform a photo to vector for a T-Shirt print ?

This has been asked before, specifically regarding vectors and tee shirts.
Not having any experience with tee shirt printing myself, does it need to be vectorized so as to reduce the total number of colors? Is that format required to drive some kind of particular device? Or is it purely an artistic gesture?
Just curious.
-Noel

I just purchased photos from shutterstock and they said it will download as .eps file. They said I would need vector editor such as adobe illustrator to convert the image to a jpeg. Could anyone advise me how to do this? This is all very foreign to me. Th

I just purchased photos from shutterstock and they said it will download as a .eps file.They said I would need vector editor such as adobe illustrator to convert the image to a jpeg. Could anyone advise me on how to do this? This is all very foreign to me.
The Swanky Lady

File>Open to open your eps file
File>Export to export your image as a jpg.
In the export dialog box just below where you type in the filename is a file type, that is where you choose jpg.
What ever you do, do not delete the eps file. Should you ever need to access the original you will have have.
I recommend that instead of jpg you choose psd, tiff, or png and use jpg only for sharing. Jpg is a lossy format meaning each time you edit the file and save it, the quality of that file degrades. The formats I recommend are lossless formats, you can edit them all you want no data is being discarded unless you choose to do so.

Changing a photo into a vector in Ai using High Fidelity

I fully understand how to change a picture into a vector in Ai and to be clear, I don't want a silhouette or a black and white image, I want to use the picture. I have had good success with using the high fidelity option to change the pic and it looks great. The problem is, I am using a cutout and when I use the high fidelity option it fills the background in as white instead of a transparency. I've even tried to hit the ignore white button but it does not help. I've resorted to then opening it in PS and removing the white and saving as a PNG24 but, when you then open in Ai to work with again it's then again pixelated.

You need to expand and ungroup after the trace. Then delete the white you do not want. I missed a little piece in the last screen shot. But you get the idea. I put a black background behind the trace.
Traced:
Expanded and ungrouped:
White selected:
White deleted:

Gradient Mesh Tool Improvements toward photo realistic vectors

Hello Guys,
Please look into adding the possibility of reading a 3D UV Map from say an OBJ (or any other 3D industry standard file type) and copy it to the Mesh sub-layer.
After that, automate a function to allow each vertex to sample the color immediately underneath it so that we can have a 3D render turned into a realistic 2D vector image.
Are you guys already on that road?? Thanks.

Vector a photo?!?

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