Help converting to vector with transparent background

Hello there,

I'm trying to create some sports logos, and I'm a real rookie on this. Ideally I want to create them in vector, in order to do this, I need a basic logo with a transparent background.

What I'm doing so far is this
1. pasting the bmp/jpg image into xara
2. using the region masking tool to select what I want to keep
3. using the eraser tool to indicate what I want to delete
4. at this point I enter the bitmap tracer, but the output seems to have a background
5. when I try to remove this new background, I get the following error

http://i59.tinypic.com/v41o5s.png

is there a better way to do this?

Sometimes it helps to create a bitmap copy first and work with the copy. Regardless of the original bitmap resolution I like to make the resolution 300dpi.

If you need a vector version of the logo then this is not the correct way however.

You need to recreate the logo using Xara's vector tools, or do a bitmap trace. This tutorial might help you. http://www.xaraxone.com/guest/guest62/

Yeah, I replicate logos in vector all the time. If you have a bitmap logo to start with, I import that to Xara. Then use vector drawing tools to trace the shape for each color. Once all elements have been trace created in vector, I delete the bitmap logo, and end up with my final perfectly traced vector logo. If I plan to use it as a bitmap (as for a web graphic), then I export the file to a PNG with alpha channel, and the background is transparent.

You seem to be using the bitmap tools to modify the bitmap logo, which is not what you should be doing. Recreate all elements of the logo as vector shapes then delete the bitmap, that should be your creation process.

Admiral Krank - Can you upload the logo you need help with and maybe we can be more specific.

Another option is Vector Magic, a very excellent bitmap tracing utility http://vectormagic.com/home I think you can do a few traces online for free and Vector Magic does a really excellent job.