Tracing Drawings

[Graymalkin]

I have had some success in using Xara's Bitmap Tracer to trace scanned black & white drawings (pen & ink) to color fill in Xara. My settings seem to be acceptable, but I'd really enjoy hearing from other graphic artists who have used Bitmap Tracer for purposes such as I have described, and hearing what specific settings work best for them.
Thanks in advance for your tips!
Email: graymalkin24016@netscape.net

[Graymalkin]

I have had some success in using Xara's Bitmap Tracer to trace scanned black & white drawings (pen & ink) to color fill in Xara. My settings seem to be acceptable, but I'd really enjoy hearing from other graphic artists who have used Bitmap Tracer for purposes such as I have described, and hearing what specific settings work best for them.
Thanks in advance for your tips!
Email: graymalkin24016@netscape.net

[raynerj]

Hello Graymalkin,

Welcome to the forums... I have used the tracer to do B&W, greyscale and full color. If the drawing is a simple B&W I just redraw it with the bitmap as a reference. If it is a large/complex B&W drawing I usually try to get away with transparent gif.

The problem with the tracer is it traces a bitmap, thus giving you a jagged edge to all shapes. Or if smoothed, you loose detail.

The last tracing I did, I had to make a vector of a logo. I traced it as accurately as possible, and then went in and smothed out the edges by deleting the extra points. Took about an hour, and the folks were pleased with the result.

[RTK]

Hello Graymalkin,

I have played around with the tracer quite a bit in the past.

I can't say that there is a specific setting that works better than another. You just have to fiddle around with the settings until you get an acceptable result. All drawings are bit different, and you have to find the best setting for each one.

You could however experiment with cleaning up the scan itself, before tracing - adjusting contrast etc.

[RTK]

Oh, if it's a relatively simple line drawing you are tracing - it could be worhwhile to redraw it in Xara X instead, with your scan as reference.

Re-drawings something will look better than a trace, any day. Unless, you are going for a specific look of course.

[doane]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Risto Klint:
Hello Graymalkin,

I have played around with the tracer quite a bit in the past.

I can't say that there is a specific setting that works better than another. You just have to fiddle around with the settings until you get an acceptable result. All drawings are bit different, and you have to find the best setting for each one.

You could however experiment with cleaning up the scan itself, before tracing - adjusting contrast etc. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You must have a table, right? ...I've gotta get one!

[raynerj]

"You must have a table, right? ...I've gotta get one!" - doane

Uhhhhhhhhhhh....

A Desk and a chair will work too I guess. If you have a laptop, you could get away with a lap.

[Albacore]

Hello Graymalkin
Sorry to take so long to respond here but I used a tutorial which could help you with the auto tracing problem but I could not remember what site I found it on. The site is not very popular with members of this forum as it is IllustratorWorld which stopped allowing for a while xara users to post there illustrations and they even had the nerve to refuse some of Garrys logos.

The techniques used in this tutorial can be appllied to use with Xara and PS or you could use Xara PE with plugins. The web address is the following; http://www.illustratorworld.com/tips/topics3.html. Used this tutorial to help in a recent surfer drawing that I did and was posted in the gallery.

[RTK]

Albacore,

The "Smart Blur" tip is a good one for creating areas that a tracer can easily recognize!

However, I do find the process described superfluous as you could achieve better results using Photoshop alone. When you have access to dynamite... why also throw a firecracker in to the mix? http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

I do find that you can achieve more interesting results with the Xara X tracer because the application itself is so much faster than Illustrator, and can handle an insane number of shapes in the image, without choking.

I have difficulty seeing the point of the resulting images in the tutorial... Tracing the original image by hand using the Pen Tool would turn out much cleaner, no? Perhaps the poor girl would even have nose, when it was done? http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[RTK]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>doane You must have a table, right? ...I've gotta get one! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
--- Yes, I have a Wacom, but with a vector application you don't really need one, unless you are using the Free Hand tool a lot.