Help turning pic into line art?

Take a look at Flaming Pear’s "India Ink" or Andromedia’s ‘Cutline." Both of these filters might do something like what you are describing.

Flaming Pear
http://www.flamingpear.com/products.html
http://www.flamingpear.com/indiaink.html
http://www.flamingpear.com/indiaink-example1.html

Andromedia
http://www.andromeda.com/
http://www.andromeda.com/info/cutline.html

PS – Do *not* expect results as good as those line drawings you see in "The Wall Street Journal" … those are done by a group of very talented … real-life … ARTISTS.

"Mitch" wrote in message

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing. I

have

had some success using the filter ‘charcoal’ but it seems to be a lot of trial and error. Does anyone know of a filter or plug-in that will such a thing?

Thank you for your help.

Have you tried the "Find Edges" filter in Photoshop?

Moira

"Mitch" wrote in message

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing. I have had some success using the filter ‘charcoal’ but it seems to be a lot of trial and error. Does anyone know of a filter or plug-in that will such a thing?

Thank you for your help.

snip

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing<

end snip

Several cheap (read free) and quick methods
using PS’s built in filters can be found at this link:
http://www.geocities.com/tang_horse/
They are all intended to highlight the linear elements of the original image.

Another method, using layer manipulation, achieves a
similar effect.
1) With the original in the background layer, duplicate
the layer and set the new layer to "Difference." The new layer now appears entirely black, because "Difference" only shows pixels that differ from those in the layer
directly below.
2) Working now with the image, chose the "Move" tool, (shortcut "V"). When you move the top layer’s image, the differences from the bottom layer will
appear in light colors, giving a "line art" appearance. I’ve found it most efficient, once the "Move" tool is selected, to do the actual moving with the arrow
keys, since you get small, discrete, reversible moves.
3) When you have an line drawing you like, just invert
the image to get dark lines on a light background.
Convert to grayscale if you want to get rid of the color. You can clean the art up somewhat with the various
"noise" and "blur" filters.

The previous poster was correct. You will not get Wall
Street Journal quality images, but the new art does
capture something of the original with a different take.

Bill

"Mitch" wrote in message

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing. I have had some success using the filter ‘charcoal’ but it seems to be a lot of trial and error. Does anyone know of a filter or plug-in that will such a thing?

Thank you for your help.

Yet another method can be found in the Tutorials at
http://www.heathrowe.com/tutorials.asp
[There are approximately 125 fairly good tutorials on that site. It is the one titled "Sketch Effect" … the first entry on the third page.]

"Bill G" wrote in message

snip

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing<

end snip

Several cheap (read free) and quick methods
using PS’s built in filters can be found at this link:
http://www.geocities.com/tang_horse/
They are all intended to highlight the linear elements of the original image.

Another method, using layer manipulation, achieves a
similar effect.
1) With the original in the background layer, duplicate
the layer and set the new layer to "Difference." The new layer now appears entirely black, because "Difference" only shows pixels that differ from those in the layer
directly below.
2) Working now with the image, chose the "Move" tool, (shortcut "V"). When you move the top layer’s image, the differences from the bottom layer will
appear in light colors, giving a "line art" appearance. I’ve found it most efficient, once the "Move" tool is selected, to do the actual moving with the arrow
keys, since you get small, discrete, reversible moves.
3) When you have an line drawing you like, just invert
the image to get dark lines on a light background.
Convert to grayscale if you want to get rid of the color. You can clean the art up somewhat with the various
"noise" and "blur" filters.

The previous poster was correct. You will not get Wall
Street Journal quality images, but the new art does
capture something of the original with a different take.
Bill

"Mitch" wrote in message

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing. I have had some success using the filter ‘charcoal’ but it seems to be a

lot

of trial and error. Does anyone know of a filter or plug-in that will

such

a thing?

Thank you for your help.

PS – Don’t miss the *second* tutorial on the third page … titled "Colored Pencil Sketch Effect."

"RSD99" wrote in message

Yet another method can be found in the Tutorials at
http://www.heathrowe.com/tutorials.asp
[There are approximately 125 fairly good tutorials on that site. It is

the

one titled "Sketch Effect" … the first entry on the third page.]

Adobe has a program called Streamline that can convert pixel-based images to vector-based images. They have a download on their site:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html

Peadge 🙂

"Mitch" wrote in message

I’m trying to turn a digital picture into line art or a line drawing. I

have

had some success using the filter ‘charcoal’ but it seems to be a lot of trial and error. Does anyone know of a filter or plug-in that will such a thing?

Thank you for your help.

Thank you all for your help! it is much appreciated!

mitch