BY POPULAR IGNORANCE: Tracer Face-off!

[Xhris]

Due to the common perception that Adobe Illustrator’s Live Trace is infinitely superior to Xara’s relatively ancient Bitmap Tracer, it was interesting to actually do a comparison. The results are summarised in a 2000 word tutorial I whipped up. Hopefully, if Gary gets time, he will also put this on Xara Xone for the masses.

There were some interesting findings from this comparison, namely to do with trace quality, speed, and practicality of use of the two tracers.

Hopefully, this tutorial should also serve to clear up some of the ignorance surrounding Xara’s Bitmap Tracer – one of the gems Xara offers.

(Tutorial attached)

[Xhris]

See my other tutorial too posted here: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=18337
about custom transparencies (Also on Xara Xone http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest52/).

[SCync]

Xhris, I admire your allegiance to Xara, and applaud your efforts at presenting a tutorial that will dispel any preferences to IA. As I have stated before, as a Windows based (for now) vector program, I can only tell you that Xara is next to none in terms of render speed, workflow speed, ease of application adoption, etc., etc., etc.

My original comments suggested that the quality of raster to vector transition was much more robust with Live Trace, and I absolutely stand by that which I will demonstrate, as soon as I get home. Agreed, that one has to wait one hell of a lot longer for the render, but that said, the results are night and day.

As a side note,when I have to move stuff around through various sevices and agencies, I have to convert to AI or EPS (as they're all Macsters), and Xara still seems to be a little on the rough side, in terms of importing to AI. I've yet to test the PDF/PDX capabilities.

Thanks for posting up the tutorial, it's food for animated discussion.

[tad]

Thank you Xhris, whoever you are ...!!!

I thought I knew most everything about the bitmap tracer, but your work has enlightened me.
Thanks again, that's my main tool.

Rgds,
tad
ps. attached file for amusement............t.

[RTK]

Xhris,

Looks like an Adobe CS2 ad to me! The trace of the line drawing produces spectacular results in CS2! Fantastic! It must be wonderful for illustrators that draw on paper first!

Don't see the point of creating an almost photo realistic version of a bitmap - when you already have the real deal in the bitmap itself (and at a smaller files size)? There are other tracers that create even more accurate photo results... Can't remember the one that I was really impressed by (but saw no use with either) was the one reviewed by David Nagel for Creative Mac... *grrr* can't remember!

In my humble opinion the Xara X tracer works best for artistic endevours such as Tad's (See the XaraXone featured artist gallery). And in combination with the existing toolset of Xara X the trace result can be manipulated in ways that would choke the life of any other vector application. Search the forums for tracer/trace - lots of experiments and examples.

However, your most generous tutorial gives a nice overview of the tool! Very well done!

[Xhris]

Looks like an Adobe CS2 ad to me!

I'm not sure how many people would agree with that. But I can confirm that it was never intended to be an ad for anyone.

Don't see the point of creating an almost photo realistic version of a bitmap - when you already have the real deal in the bitmap itself (and at a smaller files size)?

It's likely that everyone would agree that Xara made that bitmap tracer for a reason.

Some examples:
Moulding bitmaps in Xara first requires a vector trace
Applying some vector effects as done here: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=18319 requires a vector trace
Morphing bitmaps using Xara requires a vector tracing of the two bitmaps first

Given enough creative thought, there are likely many other uses of tracing a photo realistic version of a bitmap.

[RTK]

Xhris,

My comment about the "Adobe ad" was a failed attempt at humour. I was actually stunned at how well the Adobe tracer did on the line drawing. If it speeds up getting sketches in to vector format, and does a good job at it - might be worth a look.

I'm sure Xara Ltd. (and other companies) created their bitmap tracers for a reason - not sure why though, as they are quite useless for anything else but artistic exploration (IMHO) - like all tracers I have tried to-date.

Personally I love playing with the a tracer even though it doesn't have a practical use. You can find some examples on the xaraxone:

http://www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/rk2/html/01.htm (Photo-collage traced)

http://www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/rk2/html/07.htm (Photo-collage traced)

http://www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/rk2/html/04.htm (Trace filled by hand)

As I said before, I think your tutorial is excellent to get people up to speed with the tool!

Here's also an example where Xara X shines compared to other Vector apps when it comes to tracers. 16000 objects (a couple of different traces layered with transparencies) -

[Xhris]

I was actually stunned at how well the Adobe tracer did on the line drawing. If it speeds up getting sketches in to vector format, and does a good job at it - might be worth a look.

One of the aspects of the Xara Bitmap Tracer I tried to get across in the tutorial is that tracing line art can be done in Xara much more easily and efficiently, and has been able to be done so for the last decade. However, if the line art is to be increased in size beyond 100%, then the results of Illustrator are more desirable. This is likely because Live Trace was specifically designed for this - shame on Adobe if this wasn't the case given the relative quality of some full colour traces.

[RTK]

... shame on Adobe if this wasn't the case given the relative quality of some full colour traces.

--- What I was saying before about usefulness... Adobe concentrated their effors on the aspect of the feature that adds something to the end user - speeding up the process vectorizing your natural art and sketches.

Full colour traces doesn't really have a use as of now (perhaps SVG in the future) but right now, all you do is taking a bitmap and tracing in to something that's almost (or not at all) as good as the original... What's the point? (Again, unless it's for artistic purposes...)

"Scaling" can't be it... As scaling a detail trace adds more artifacts than s-spline and noise ninja on the bitmap itself (and the colour range is not limited).

[Xhris]

Full colour traces doesn't really have a use as of now

Who else thinks this isn't true?

Incidentally, there are actually cases where Illustrator's Tracing of full colour photos produces better results (see attached image). If the image has a lot of clear edges, or if there are small line-like details, Live Trace picks those out better.

Top pics are originals
Middle is Adobe trace
Bottom is Xara result

Gradient surfaces are better traced by Xara (cup, car windshield & number plate, watchface), edges are traced more clearly by Live Trace (car lines, watch details)

In general, the two tracers are comparable. The only large difference is that one is fast and efficient, and has been around for ten years. There's not much else to say.