Quote Originally Posted by gwpriester View Post
Vector Magic is hands down the best bitmap to vector conversion tool...
Whilst I agree that Xara's tracer is clunky and almost impossible to work with (and the results are disappointing), Vector Magic is much better, if somewhat limited in its selection of tools.
Illustrator's, whilst not intuitive, is actually a very good set of tools, especially if one takes the time to explore the Image Trace Panel.
I have watched Justin Seely's Tracing Artwork with Illustrator Video Tutorials at Lynda.com and they offer an insight into how flexible Illy's Image Trace tool is. There are plenty of presets that offer a quick fix, but understanding how Curve Fitting and other advanced settings will improve results is an eye-opener. If you already have Illustrator CS6 or above, there really is no need for Vector Magic.
Bob.