converting lineart into vector format for xara xtreme pro

[handrawn]

When I first got xara I didnt know a vector from a bitmap. I scanned in bitmaps and colored them with photoshop and painter, using xara as a paste-up program which like most other things it does it does well.
I started to learn about vectors and of course I then wanted to convert my line drawings to vector lines. Try as I might, this just didnt seem to work right in xara - I read the tutorials, checked out the xone, but in the end it seems xara bitmap tracer produces shapes - fine if you stick with the white background -but once you ungroup, lines in not what you ends up with.
So I cursed, and I tried Illustrator 10, and cursed even more; I tried Corel Draw and Illustrator CS on trial to no great diminishing of the curse.
However at last I got a method that suits me thanks to Peter Selinger's tracer potrace, as implemented in Inkscape.

The method is as attached; and its a bit of a bunny hop. Sorry the xar file is a tad large, but it gives you the idea best.

My question is this - is there a more blindingly obvious solution staring me in the face?

I need to continue to to draw these cartoons in pen and ink mostly because the effect is quite different to drawing the vectors direct, and also its a karma thing, pen drawing the way I do it is like a 100 metre sprint, as opposed to vector drawing which is more like a car ride - heck I know what I mean.....

Thanks

[David O'Neil]

The Inkscape tracer appears to be heads and tails better than Xara's tracer, so I would keep that part of your workflow, unless you want to trace it by hand. Everything else can be done quite easily in Xara.

[jamesmc]

Haven't used Inkscape in awhile is the tracer updated? It used to leave a million objects on things I scanned.

[Intbel]

Rather a long winded way to go about things I thought.

This is easier and probably quicker ...

[handrawn]

Thanks for the replies I really appreciate the input.

David:

Yes for what I do I thought that the inkscape tracer was better too.
Basically in my usual long-winded way I was seeking confirmation that I was right on this score which you have confirmed.
Thanks too for taking the time to make the file with the alternative way of making the fill shapes, that was kind of you.

jamesmc

I have used the inkscape tracer since ver 0.43 of inkscape. Current ver 0.45 has further enhancements.
I would use the inscape tracer for b&w line art and simple block color line art, but for photos I'd stick with xara - though I have only done test runs on photos as I dont trace these generally.
If I stick with the two settings shown or thereabouts it gives me good results
If you dont have pro - when I had xtreme I had to save svg and convert to wmf/ai8 in illustrator works ok - I think you may already know this?



Intbel:

Thank you too for you file and suggestion, much appreciated.


Cheers

[ivan louette]

Thanks a lot Steve ! Precisely I was searching at the moment for a good lineart tracer which was useable with Xara !!! Your experiments with settings are very welcome too !

kindly,
ivan

[handrawn]

pleasure ivan

Keep the scans at a decent dpi if you can - I use 300dpi - I seem to recall inkscape advises you to do this.

My scanner has a specific lineart setting which is 1bit ie 2 colors only - solid black and solid white no greys. I think is is probably pretty standard for scanners? This gives best results I find.

[ivan louette]

Steve, I tested it and it's simple and excellent !!! I have tried with a transparent png and it's ability to remove the background and overlay the layers is very nice. I also tested black lineart and that's perfect ! I am happy with it.

However the first version of Inkscape I erroneously downloaded was a developper version and my Win2K was very disturbed with it ...! But I removed it and it's allright now with a normal user version ;-)

kindly,
ivan

[handrawn]

Yes

Inkscape is a work in progress. Always use the latest stable release if you are not a program testing type.

Sometimes under windows it can still mis-behave. One of its favorite tricks is to hide a dialog box behind another so it appears to freeze. Then you need to minimise all boxes and then maximise the one you need. If all you use it for is trace there shoulndt be a problem.

I have XP - sometimes inkscape really does lock, and I have to use CTRL+ALT+DEL to close it [application tab].
But I dont always use the stable version, cos I like experimenting.

Glad you found it of use - thats what xone is about.
I was like the dog with two tails when I first found it out.

Cheers

[ivan louette]

Thanks for your additional comments !

Now I tested PStoEdit (complement of Ghostview) to convert PDF files exported from Xara to svg and Inkscape can import them ! Thus it's possible to do some exchanges in vector format between the two applications. Interesting !

kindly,
ivan