TRACE in Xara Xtreme?

[enewbold]

I use a lot of BMP and JOG images in my line of work (laser engraving) and I need a fast and efficient way to convert these bitmaps into vector images. Right now I simply import the bitmap into CorelDraw and manually trace over it with bezier lines. Very slow and time consuming. I'd love a better way to at least get a jump start on it!

If I could get it done with Xara quickly and efficiently, that would be even better!

Cheers,
Ed

[Big Frank]

Upload one of these files and let's see what we're talking about here.

[enewbold]

I use a lot of BMP and JOG images in my line of work (laser engraving) and I need a fast and efficient way to convert these bitmaps into vector images. Right now I simply import the bitmap into CorelDraw and manually trace over it with bezier lines. Very slow and time consuming. I'd love a better way to at least get a jump start on it!

Hmmm... I just found page 2 of Workbook 51 and it deals extensively with tracing in Xara. Let me read it and follow the instructions there first. Thanks, =Ed=

[gwpriester]

Here's a link to Workbook 51.

You would go about the process the same way in Xara as you would in CorelDRAW (except Xara works faster so you can do it a bit quicker).

If you have a really good, high resolution bitmap, you can try the bitmap trace route. Here are links to 2 guest tutorials on Bitmap Tracing Guest Tutorial 53 and Guest Tutorial 62 .

But your best bet is to use the drawing tools to recreate the logo as a vector. It will be cleaner and in almost every case, superior to a bitmap trace (not matter what program you use to do the bitmap trace).

Gary