Vectorising an Image - Help

[Mike a]

I need to vectorise a logo for a friend who is helping to advertising my company. After looking around on the net the only way I can find to do is to buy some expensive software which I can't afford.



So I'm hoping one of you guys can help..
If anyone has software that can vectorise a logo for me I would be extremely grateful.

many thanks

 

[VEG]

dont know if the link will work but

http://www.autotracer.org/


http://vectormagic.com/home

Its free

 

[BeeJayBee]

This thread might help Mike http://www.t-shirtforums.com/graphics-design-help/t61052.html Try inkscape, it's open source software >> http://inkscape.org/

 

[Hombre]

I'm with BeJoyful in recommending Inkscape.

Drag in the image, highlight/select it and have a play.

Path > Trace Bitmap then try out the dialogue box Move the result to one side, as it will be over the original image and might not give a proper representation that you are happy with. Once you have the best that you can get then you can copy/duplicate it and hack away without damaging the interim image that you worked hard for.

If the logo is nice and clear then you should be able to produce something quite nice.

My Avatar uses a picture of my violin which was rendered into, I think, four colours.

SVG is good, but seems to be taking an age to make it into the mainstream.

= = =
Maybe it was grey scaled . . . 2/10 for observation and memory then . . .

 

[alanf]

I need to vectorise a logo for a friend...

How much software helps might depend on what you're eventually using it for and what you start with. The process in the software I've seen is to 'trace' the raster image. That sort of works for simple shapes with sharply defined edges. As I recall doing this years back, the problem tends to be that lines aligned to a grid are fine but curves can be traced to a polygon which doesn't scale any better than the raster at extreme sizes. Lettering especially can look odd and can need graphic tweaks at larger sizes. It can be simpler to start again with a vector drawing package, but that puts you in the same software sector.

You won't know for certain until you try it though. If you don't know anybody with Adobe Illustrator or similar there's Inkscape, although I've not tried it a lot. If there is a lot of lettering, first step is to find out what the font is, it can be worth treating the lettering separately from the rest of the graphics. Whatever you try it's a useful introduction to the graphics sector.

 

[waverider]

If you email your image i can do what is needed to it. I have Adobe CS6.

 

[Mike a]

I downloaded Inkscape and tried to figure out how to use it, but found out very quickly that playing around with graphics to get what you want is art and probably takes a ton of practice just to get something reasonable.

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions.


PM sent Waverider

 

[Hombre]

I found Inkscape to have a steep learning curve a few years ago, but it was worth it and it's now one of my favourite applicaiotns.