Vectorising Bitmaps

O
Posted By
odb69
Jul 24, 2005
Views
413
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?

—
odb69
Related Tags
bitmap

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E
edjh
Jul 24, 2005
odb69 wrote:
Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?
In general he’s right. There is Adobe Streamline which traces and Illustrator and Freehand both have auto-trace functions, but you still need to go back and do some manual tweaking, sometimes quite extensive. There are a few bitmap-to-vector applications out there. Google it and see what you get.

—
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M
Mike
Jul 24, 2005
in article dbvu82$fru$, odb69 at
wrote on 07/24/2005 4:32 AM:

Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?

http://www.artistmike.com/VectorizationService/1.html

Mike
Site at: http://www.artistmike.com
Certificate Design at: http://www.artistmike.com/CertificateDesigns/1.html Logos at: http://www.artistmike.com/NewLogos2002/Logos2002.08a.html
ND
Norm Dresner
Jul 24, 2005
"odb69" wrote in message
Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?

I’ve been using a program called R2VToolbox by AlgoLab for over a year for work to take line drawings of aircraft and convert them into vector outlines for use in a program I’ve written. I admit that I have no idea how it would function with a more complex original but IIRC you can download a trial version before purchasing. Also, you’ll find many raster-to-vector conversion tools in several other industries:
* CAD where many people need to go from solid sketches and pictures into detailed drawings
* Geography where topographic maps are digitized to vector-line-drawing for computer use
* Weather maps are another place where rafter-to-vector is done frequently.

There are plenty of other uses and consequently programs to use, but you have to go outside of the "illustration" industry to find them.

Norm
O
odb69
Jul 25, 2005
Thank you all for your suggestions.

—
odb69
MR
Michael Riddle
Jul 25, 2005
Two programs which work for me are Macromedia (Adobe?) Flash 5 which will do a very nice job of converting a bitmap into vector, and Adobe Illustrator CS2 which gives a bit more control.

I hope this helps,

Mike

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 11:32:18 +0000 (UTC), "odb69" wrote:

Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?
P
poza
Jul 27, 2005
odb69 wrote:

Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?

It depends one what you want to transfer. You can quickly create vector art of high resolution black and white line art in Photoshop by doing the Kai’s Power Tips method of gaussian blur & use levels to sharpen to clean it up nicely and then use color range to select all the black, convert the selection to a path, export the path and select and fill in Illustrator.

For more complex images though, you’re better off doing it yourself by hand or with the autotrace tools that have already been mentioned and then tweaking. Personally, I find tweaking so annoying that I’d rather just do it all myself.

Orchid
FJ
Frank Jones
Jul 31, 2005
On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 11:32:18 +0000 (UTC), "odb69" wrote:

Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one? I had asked one of
my colleagues and he said that there was no quick and
easy way and that I’d have to go over the image with a
pen tool. Is this true? Are there any image editing S/W
packages that will do what I want done?

Try this:

http://potrace.sourceforge.net/
M
Mike
Aug 1, 2005
in article , Frank Jones at
wrote on 07/31/2005 4:56 AM:

On Sun, 24 Jul 2005 11:32:18 +0000 (UTC), "odb69" wrote:

Hey people,

Does anyone know if there is a simple way to transfer
a bitmap image into a vector one?

Try this:
http://www.artistmike.com/VectorizationService/1.html

Mike
Site at: http://www.artistmike.com
Certificate Design at: http://www.artistmike.com/CertificateDesigns/1.html Logos at: http://www.artistmike.com/NewLogos2002/Logos2002.08a.html

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