How to extract detailed work

[mightyfun]

I am currently working with some very detailed Dover clipart for a Victorian project I am creating.

My question is .. Is there an easier way to extract detailed images with a lot of white mixed into them other than tracing around the image and slice out all of the detailed inside work?

I have tried using the Mehdi magic eraser and it does what I want, EXCEPT it doesn't let me alter the color of the image like it would had I truly extracted it.

Any suggestions?

Jen

[molucca]

I would make a level adjustment, and make the image more gray. With the image selected, open the bitmap gallery and select the image amd click transparent.

Rich

[molucca]

Way2.

Turn on snapping. Snap a rectangle to the image size, and apply color or fill.

With the rectangle selected, open the bitmap gallery. Select the B&W image and hit transparent.

Rich

[Egg Bramhill]

I've just done a test on the oldest way of doing it. Select and apply a Stained Glass transparency. Create a bitmap copy with Alpha. You get a warning but continue. You end up with a bitmap that you can change the fill by clicking on the colour line.

Do you know where this type of design gets the name Dover from?

[handrawn]

converting this image to vector other than by hand is possible ideally with a much higher resolution/size image - however I tried the image you posted in inkscape and the results are attached - see xar file - sorry its a bit big

at this level some detail is lost, to be honest a little will always be lost with an automatic trace on fine detail, but it is a whole load quicker and easier, one you know your way around the settings.
if this looks like what you want let me know and I'll post up details.

it would be nice if there is a higher resolution image to try that

[DGehman]

Egg - Dover is Dover Publications. They reprint historical books and a huge selection of royalty-free artwork for designers. Much of the latter is available on CD-ROMs (they seem not yet to have embraced DVD).

Handrawn, a lot of Dover electronic art is very low res, mainly small TIFF files. Each jaggy in the original is translated into a point by tracing. And, no tracing program today is going to create logical polynomes (e.g., leaf, blossom petal, pistel, stamen...). The latter would make it easier to apply colors and fills to appropriate sections.

It's not difficult to trace in Xara using zoom and Pen or Shape Editor, though it takes time. That said, the coloration ideas earlier in this thread are useful if vectorization is not all that important.

[DGehman]

About 1.25 hours to reach this point, and I'm not really proficient in Xara Xtreme 2.0

Estimate an additional 45 minutes for the leaves. This design is completely symmetrical, a great time saver.

Note that the file size is ~1/10 that of the (auto) traced one from Handrawn (though the leaves aren't here yet).

[handrawn]

cant say I disagree with you on the level of detail in this case

heres my effort, coloring the bitmap not hand tracing, hand colored in bitmap editor 15mins - bit rough and ready - need more practice

[handrawn]

another one messing with alpha masks

[DGehman]

Handrawn's might be better - it's another hour for the leaves, and there's some cheating (fills instead of line shading).

Later: Plus another 10 minutes or so to get the dots around the stamens.