DSF

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced software package that will convert jpegs etc to vector format?

I've got both Adobe Illustrator and Coreldraw X4

Thanks

Can you not just do a trace or draw from scratch - you have both programs to do this?

Hi John, I've only just got into this, and imaging software is not my thing, yet.

Was looking for an easy option, lol

Should really get myself a dummies book for both, to help me out, but I'm being lazy

I'm afraid there's no easy option - practice with coreldraw and it will become easier. The trace on anything above coreldraw 12 is quite accurate, if I cannot do a logo conversion in corel I revert to photoshop to break things up.

Cheers john

Thanks John, will have a play about with it then

Hi Kaz, There is software out there that claims to do this, but basically all its doing is a trace which is what your programs already do.

Cheers John

I've had fantastic results with Vector Magic over the past couple of years, well worth a try. Worked alongside a very experienced designer and the software very often matched results but far quicker.

Justin wrote:I've had fantastic results with Vector Magic over the past couple of years, well worth a try. Worked alongside a very experienced designer and the software very often matched results but far quicker.

Lol...until this reply i was saying "yes you can....yes you can....yes you can"

Yup,,Vector Magic is your answer. Ive been using it from the start when it was hosted for free as a project for some very prestigious American university....now ya gotta pay though

Its now available as a desktop application and let me tell you ... it works! if you can use photoshop to clean up jpg artifacts and basically get rid of the noise in the image, then let VM take over. its very versatile and you can get great results.

Its not the full "magic wand" because you do need to know a little about how images are displayed i.e. jpg, TIFF etc but for me its been a god-send since day one. All saved files are either SWP or EPS which means you can fully edit your EPS in Illustrator.

saying that, Adobe Illustrator has a "trace" function, but sadly its about as much use as a chocolate ashtray. For a vector based program; Illustrator sucks at tracing images for vectorisation, beggars belief on that one.

Im not sure of the price on Vector Magic but if you really need to vector images and do it well, well then i guess its money well spent...and tax deductable.

Go get the demo and see for yourself...

chars
dave.

if you have an image that you want done, send it to me and ill see what i can do for you. [email="info@stainz.co.uk]info@stainz.co.uk[/email]

Hi Kaz

A good free program I frequently use is 'Inkscape', available from http://www.filehippo.com It does a good job.

Mal

Thanks Mal, will have a look at that when I get on the right lappy