Best Vectorise Software, like on RiscOS

[Nostaw]

Many years ago, mid/early 90's I had an Acorn and this amazing -still up to date- best vectorize software ever. I can't remember what it was called, but i think it was from Computer Concepts(?).
An example: draw a thick letter 0, scan it and the vectorize software scanned the shape perfectly and made it into ONE shape (not 2 shapes with a black circle and a white circle inside) with less curves and it fit perfectly - impossible to do it better by hand. Any filled circle you drew by hand would have had ben converted with 4 points only using perfect fitting bezier curves!

I'm still wondering what happened to this technology and looked up the web of the company who made it back then.

Anyhow, up to date i haven't seen anything like this on the PC and (sorry to say) Xara's vectorise engine is not really good. I also tried Adobe Streamline years ago *shudder*, Kvec, AlgoLabPhotoVector, Autotrace, MagicTracer, WinTopo, Vextractor - none of them came even close to this Software i used on RiscOS.

I figured there are a couple of ex RiscOS users here, maybe you can help out in find the company who did it and try to get a PC version?

(yes let me dream )

[sunland]

Check out this link
http://xara.com/history.asp
Computer Comcepts was Xara's early name.
All of the history is there. Even about Artworks
the "direct ancestor to XaraXtreme".
adios

[Nostaw]

I used Artworks alot on the Acorn Archimedes, how silly of me, of course I knew Computer Concepts is Xara Ltd, it's just some time ago

So obviously this Vector conversion software I'm looking for is not from CC then.

[remi]

So obviously this Vector conversion software I'm looking for is not from CC then.

You're wrong: The one and only you're looking for is the great tutorial called Xara Bitmap Tracer vs Adobe Live Trace with a lot of details and tips about the right settings of Xara Xtreme's bitmap tracer.

But "real" illustrators don't use a bitmap tracer often, they prefer to redraw the silhouettes with the Pen Tool (Shift+F5 - a horrible shortcut for my most preferred tool) or the Freehand Tool (F3).

Remi

[Sueno]

Hi I'm new here, and a new Xara Xtreme user. However, I am longtime Acorn RiscOS user (which I still use on the PC emulator). I wonder if the software you are looking for is the application called !Trace. It was written by David Pilling who produced some excellent programs in the early RisOS days.

[Logo Kid]

I would have to agree with remi ... anything by any trace program is cold and badly done ... the only true way to do it is with two special tools called ...

Time & Patience

[remi]

...and love

[Nostaw]

Hi I'm new here, and a new Xara Xtreme user. However, I am longtime Acorn RiscOS user (which I still use on the PC emulator). I wonder if the software you are looking for is the application called !Trace. It was written by David Pilling who produced some excellent programs in the early RisOS days.

I looked it up the web and indeed i've found something:
http://pilling.users.netlink.co.uk/trace.html
David Pilling ported !Trace to PC, Monochrome bitmap to vector tracings are looking great. He also ported Ovation (the DTP program) to PC.

I'm not sure though if !Trace was the program i've used on the Acorn. The program I am looking for traced monocrome images in realtime. You could see how the program tried to match the bitmap by bending vector bezier curves with the bitmap in the background in realtime, almost like someone redraw's the image.

[Nostaw]

You're wrong: The one and only you're looking for is the great tutorial called Xara Bitmap Tracer vs Adobe Live Trace with a lot of details and tips about the right settings of Xara Xtreme's bitmap tracer. Remi

Sorry, you are wrong Xara's Monocrome tracer fills 'holes' always with another shape and joining shapes afterwards doesn't always work. The tracer i used on the Acorn always created monocrome images by having 1 shape in the end, and not black and white shapes overlayed. The result was way clearer than Xara's internal tracer. I'm not turning Xara's tracer down rather than searching if this tracer has ben ported to PC.

But "real" illustrators don't use a bitmap tracer often, they prefer to redraw the silhouettes with the Pen Tool (Shift+F5 - a horrible shortcut for my most preferred tool) or the Freehand Tool (F3).

Remi

I would never trace any color images, that doesn't turn out. Of course you are right by redrawing bitmaps by hand is the best way to go (and its easy to do in xara) IF you have time. However, there are jobs where you don't have to be perfect because its not paid good enough, that's where timesavers like good tracers come in handy.

[Albacore]

There are many user here that came from Riscos the first I owned was the A310 and the only decent programmes for it was CC with Publisher & Art Works. I have used Art Works for many years and used the trace function with some sucess but it is just the same as Xara. I think we all have memories which amplify the ease of use of our old compures. We tend to remember how simple and straight forward every things were and we don't remember how bad the printing was or how many screen freezes we had with Art Works.

I got promotion because I could do presentations in Power Point with high quality drawings because of Art Work's and write illstrated tutorials for staff and students far better than any PC or Mac based machines and with a huge effort get my work to the printers.

What I am try to say my work now is better, more reliable and has a wider range of used skills and if yiu are using Xara X1 with its grayscale converter then you can get the same results as you did in the 90's when using Art Works.