Will Xara X-2 top this?

[RTK]

All the reviews I have read are pretty much freaking out over the live trace feature. Unfortunataly very few reviews have detailed examples... And as far as I can tell, the trial downwload from Adobe is not CS2 but CS? (Or maybe they haven't updated the webpage yet)? I'm very excited to see what it can do with scanned line drawings... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[LogoVend]

It wasn't an altogether legal download I did - you can get a 'torrent' of anything now-a-days - but to put all your pious minds at rest - if I like a programme I usually buy it any way - I have a 100% legit copies of Xara X1, Photoshop 5.5 and Flash MX - which is all I pretty much use.

[Don Lamb]

Gary,

How does Live Trace compare with Adobe Streamline. Any improvements?

[gwpriester]

So (I'm assuming from what Gary said) it's no problem importing the traced results into Xara and then playing with it there - is this correct?

I just saved the drawing to Illustrator 8.0 which is the latest version that Xara supports. The trick is getting a bitmap with a high resolution which will give a better result.

Basically any trace program looks at a black and white bitmap and then has to determine what is black and what is white. If the bitmap is antialiased, then the tracing program has to determine a "threshold" which is usually around 128 out of 255. So every value of gray between 0-128 is black and every value from 128-255 is black. And then you can adjust the threshold to fine tune your results.

I must say Jens from looking at the autotrace program you linked to that it is not as good or as accurate as Xara's.

I did some tests yesterday of a simple logo saved at 300dpi with text on a circle and a black and white bird symbol which I traced in Xara and then in Illustrator CS2 and there was no comparison. Xara did an acceptable job but you could tell it was a trace. The CS2 version was almost indistinguishable from the original.

Gary

[draven]

So (I'm assuming from what Gary said) it's no problem importing the traced results into Xara and then playing with it there - is this correct? Could you give any tips on the best method for this? I've been SO frustrated with every type of trace program I've ever tried. If this is as good as it sounds, I may even have to purchase AI! (when this is available).

[jens g.r. benthien]

A superb tracer for free:

http://autotrace.sourceforge.net/index.html

Check the samples and you'll see what you get before you will download it.

The link for the GUI Delineator is on the same page.

[John Rayner]

Hi Klaus,

AI can save to many of it's older file types. for instance, I have V10 can save at anywhere between V3 and V10.

[gwpriester]

How does Live Trace compare with Adobe Streamline. Any improvements?

To be honest, Don, I have not used Streamline for many generations so I can't answer your question. I suspect that as with any technology, the Adobe engineers probably looked at the code and tweaked it a bit.

Just think Gary how easy it would have been to use with your latest workbook logo design.

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif (eh, heh heh...) I did use it. I just did not want to make a big deal about it.

But I brought the trace into Xara and did a lot of tweaking.

Xara is still worlds ahead of Illustrator in terms of ease of use and interface. I always feel like I am in an alien environment when I use Illustrator. A better analogy might be trying to run in knee-deep mud. But if someone has a better tool, Live Trace for example, then why not use it?

Gary

[carygee]

For those who do not have access to AI-CS2, I found this cool little video tutorial that highlights the live trace tool. Hope you find it interesting:

http://www.creativecow.net/articles/.../livetrace.htm

[carygee]

Was tooling around with AI-CS2 this weekend and was blown away by the Live Trace|Live Paint features. Talk about show-stoppers!

Raises the bar for the next release of Xara X (assuming I haven't passed on by then http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif