corel 3 original art converted to clip art

[ciara]

i'm working w/ highly detailed original pieces of b&w art (to become a dxf that is cut on a cnc plasma cutter) i import the drawing as a jpeg, convert it to a bitmap, then trace the bitmap. problem: no matter how tight & black the drawing is, the conversion is awful! doesn't look like the original - too many details are lost, curves become lines, noses & chins are flattened, etc. i've tried tracing it as line art, clip art, detailed logo etc., adjusting 'detail' & 'smoothing' - to no avail. the 'before' has the details, the 'after' looks like an etch a sketch drawing! any suggestions? thanks. ciara cesacer@aol.com

[iamtheblues]

Welcome to the forum, ciara. Corel's bitmap tracer is okay, but nothing special. Illustrator's is better, but the best of the bunch is Vector Magic. There is a desktop version that retails at $295 and an online version that you can test free of charge initially. The desktop Version has save disabled, so all you can do is test the output. At the price they charge, you may think this is too much, considering it is a one-trick pony. This thread goes into some detail with posted examples.
Saludos,
Bob.

[CMONE]

Your Picture have only 72 dpi!
Invert your Picture in Corel-Trace and you see the many Pixeldestroyes, this is normal in Rasterformat JPG or Bitmap!
Make a Picture with more dpi (150 or 300) than invert in a Black and White Image. Now you can trace it and your result will very more better

Greetings
CMONE