: Better ways of vectorizing photos than Illustrator's Trace? Are there any better ways of vectorizing photos than Illustrator's Trace? I don't have one of them Wacom boards so I can't really do

@Murphy569

Vector magic is awesome as far as one click tracing is concerned, far better than Illustrators image trace, but isn't perfect all the time. Especially if contrasts are low etc. A very cheap source I have found is a site/app called fiverr. It is not a one click solution but for USD someone in Indonesia (that's the fellow I use) will completely redraw it for you in .eps.ai etc formats. I have used them many times. Its obviously a lot of work for five bucks so I leave a tip as well. Usually within 24 hours. I have nothing to do with this company but I am a multimedia designer who is not very comfortable in the vector world. Vector magic and Fiverr have saved my sanity many times. You get two free traces with Vector magic ( per email address ).

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@BetL875

I just used vectormagic.com and it works really well. The downloaded Mac app Vector Magic v1.8 costs 5 (last modified August 2010) but the online version is per month. Here is the result I got from tracing a 450px wide line art drawing. You do need to see this test image at full screen to appreciate the nice work vectormagic did on the curves.

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@Smith574

it's true that there's no magic, it doesn't exist any perfect tracer, but, for example,in vectormagic.com/home , they have an online free auto tracer much better than Illustrator's one, at least for tracing black and white logos, that's a proven fact

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@Caterina889

You don't have to have a tablet to create paths with the pen tool. Thousands of users never touch a tablet, but still use Illustrator.

The best method for any vector art is to draw it yourself. It does take practice, but that is the best method by far. People spend years learning how to create vector art properly. It's simply not something any automated tracing tool can do with a click of a button. In most cases, tracing provides adequate results at best. In many cases, and for many user, "adequate" is just that for them and they are happy. If you want more refined artwork with better control over anything, you really have to create the paths yourself.

If you are using any automated tracing tool, you need to familiarize yourself with how it works. It may help to tweak values or sharpness of an image in a raster editing app, such as Photoshop, before trying to trace it. You may need to draw with pen rather than pencil if you are scanning artwork. You may need to adjust settings in the tracing tool to get the exact trace you are looking for.

There is no "magic" button anywhere which will make any tracing tool work for everyone in every circumstance. There are additional tools such as vectormagic.com. However, as with any tool and stated earlier, even that may not yield the result you want if you are unfamiliar with it.

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