Vector Image

scan to Vector

[santiban]

Hi!
Can i convert a scan into a vector image?
im using Illustrator - any help would be appreciated.
thanks

[monkeythumpa]

You can't really scan to vector. Adobe had a product out a while back, Streamline I think, it turned bitmaps into vector drawings, but the end product still needed a lot of tweaking and the paths were so complex it was tough to work with. Your best bet is to scan it to bitmap, put it on layer one in Illustratror, then draw each shape on a different layer. Arange the layers and eventually you should have a vector representation of the original image. How detailed it is depends on how much time you want to spend.

[Jon_King]

Try the Autotrace tool built into Illustrator. Sometimes this tool can do the trick on simple conversions.

Other than that, Adobe Streamline or CorelTrace work pretty well depending entirely on the subject matter of the image. If the image is fairly high contrast (distinct areas of color and intensity) the tracing can work well, if the image is very soft or graduated it usually doesn't do so well.

I will also say the very best conversions I've done were direct from the scanner to an eps file with an old piece of software from Jetsoft called ArtScan. This software does incredible work when trying to convert flat color logos to vector.