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Deceptikon · Apr 28, 2004, 00:21

Hello all-

I am new to this forum--so hi! I have been using illustrator for quite a while and often use streamline to vectorize my pictures. Besides using this method, is there any other way, either in illustrator or photoshop or another program, to make a photo into a vector image besides tracing over it in illustrator? I would think that this would be a logical option but I have yet to figure out a way to do this. Am I just missing something??

Thanks alot-
D

Kevin Yank · Apr 28, 2004, 01:19

I believe Macromedia FreeHand has an "auto trace" feature that does this.

Frozentoast · Apr 28, 2004, 01:37

And Flash has the trace bitmap function

Si · Apr 28, 2004, 02:39

I still think you can't beat doing it by hand. It may be time consuming but you get the best result.

I know for a fact that while Flash can create some interesting effects, it still pixelates a tad too much. I'm not sure about FH's so I won't comment.

Deceptikon · Apr 28, 2004, 11:41

Thanks for the replies...i think i'll check out that freehand option, as I have no idea how to use flash (as of yet). Too bad adobe hasn't gotten on that, it seems so darn logical to me.

Yeah by hand is definately the best but sometimes I want to try a few options quickly without having to painstakingly go through each one.

-D

colinr · Apr 28, 2004, 13:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsi

I still think you can't beat doing it by hand. It may be time consuming but you get the best result.

If you plan on modifing the vectors and such, I would say do it by hand b/c Flash/Streamline, etc tend to make ALOT of anchors and its very hard to modify, BUT if you just need it done once, using these "Shortcuts" are fine.
Like everything in life, this too has big trade-offs

DCS · Apr 28, 2004, 16:55

Corel Photopaint comes with a little utility called OCR-Trace that besides the obvious OCR capabilites has some pretty robust features for auto-tracing. Even more amazing this is in version 7, which is close to 10 years old now.

Apr 28, 2004, 00:21	#1
Deceptikon SitePoint Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Davis, CA Posts: 3	Vectorizing photos Hello all- I am new to this forum--so hi! I have been using illustrator for quite a while and often use streamline to vectorize my pictures. Besides using this method, is there any other way, either in illustrator or photoshop or another program, to make a photo into a vector image besides tracing over it in illustrator? I would think that this would be a logical option but I have yet to figure out a way to do this. Am I just missing something?? Thanks alot- D

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Apr 28, 2004, 01:19	#2
Kevin Yank SitePoint resident know-it-all Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 2,918	I believe Macromedia FreeHand has an "auto trace" feature that does this.

Apr 28, 2004, 01:37	#3
Frozentoast Non-Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 5,103	And Flash has the trace bitmap function

Apr 28, 2004, 02:39	#4
Si Also available in Large Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Walsall, UK Posts: 1,971	I still think you can't beat doing it by hand. It may be time consuming but you get the best result. I know for a fact that while Flash can create some interesting effects, it still pixelates a tad too much. I'm not sure about FH's so I won't comment.

Apr 28, 2004, 11:41	#5
Deceptikon SitePoint Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Davis, CA Posts: 3	Thanks for the replies...i think i'll check out that freehand option, as I have no idea how to use flash (as of yet). Too bad adobe hasn't gotten on that, it seems so darn logical to me. Yeah by hand is definately the best but sometimes I want to try a few options quickly without having to painstakingly go through each one. -D

Apr 28, 2004, 16:55	#7
DCS SitePoint Guru Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Arkansas Posts: 816	Corel Photopaint comes with a little utility called OCR-Trace that besides the obvious OCR capabilites has some pretty robust features for auto-tracing. Even more amazing this is in version 7, which is close to 10 years old now.