Adobe Community: Addon for Illustrator tracing to get same pixel smoothing as Vector Magic?

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1. markerline,

Jul 17, 2012 1:11 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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If CS3 doesn't have Live Trace which is now called Image Trace then try this:

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Streamline-4-0-Old-Version/dp/B00002S84G/r ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342512623&sr=8-1&keywords=adobe+streamline

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2. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 1:20 AM in reply to markerline

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Yes, CS3 has Live trace but it keeps the pixels as squared shape after the tracing, untill now i didnt find any smoothing fonction like vector magic automatic does..

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3. [scott w],

Jul 17, 2012 1:22 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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The "Blur" setting in the Live Trace Options will effect how much "smoothing" Live Trace uses.

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4. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 1:32 AM in reply to [scott w]

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Usually I use as less Blur as I can because it affects the final pic and gives it too much blur effect.

I noticed the less number of colours I take the less it will takes into account these pixels.

the minimal area also I use and put there 1 or 2 px.

but still often vector magic has a lot bettter "smoothing" effect on the pixelizeed curves.

To be honest I think there will not exist some CS addons like that but who knows :-)

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5. markerline,

Jul 17, 2012 1:50 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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But that might just be your issue. You might have to increase the min area or min stroke length to get it to work right. I'm no scientist when it comes to Live Trace but I have found that playing with the parameters in Preview mode with the dialog box still open allows me to get the settings just right for that particular image. 1 or 2 px is just too short.

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6. [scott w],

Jul 17, 2012 2:01 AM in reply to markerline

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Realize that Vector Trace in Illustrator CS6 is completely rebuilt and yields better results than Live Trace in my experience. CS3 was the first itteration of Live Trace.. or, in other words, the first shot at the feature.

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7. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 2:35 AM in reply to markerline

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Markerline,

What do u mean by "stroke length"? the path fitting? or how should I minimize the strength length?

I also always play with the tracing option and see how it effects

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8. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 2:38 AM in reply to [scott w]

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Scott,

A question a little bit out of topic but just between brackets, if I get CS6 or CS10, can I then "save as" CS3 files? for the colleagues still being able to open the file?

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9. markerline,

Jul 17, 2012 2:53 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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There is the option available if you choose "Stroke" instead of "Fill"

Here is a picture:

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10. markerline,

Jul 17, 2012 2:55 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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By the way this image has not been traced yet. As you can see the Preview mode is not checked so it appears very pixelated as I intended it to be to show that if you tweak these settings in this dialog box you can achieve a smooth trace. This is CS4 by the way. I can demonstrate CS6 also but I am not that comfortable yet with that version of AI.

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11. [scott w],

Jul 17, 2012 3:18 AM in reply to markerline

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Thomas,

CS3 allows you to save files in many older formats.

Of course, if you use new features and then back save, artwork may be expanded to maintain appearance. It all depends on exactly what you are creating.

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12. Monika Gause,

Jul 17, 2012 3:21 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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thomasNordic wrote:
if I get CS6 or CS10, can I then "save as" CS3 files?

nobody knows what will be possible in version CS10 (or even CS7). But in CS6 you can downsave files.

Only this kind of cooperation is not adviseable at all, because a lot of stuff might get converted when downsaving and this doesn't only affect new features, but also older features that have been updated.

Greetings from Hamburg.

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13. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 5:12 AM in reply to markerline

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Markerline,

Ah, yes, this option is only available in the „black and white“ version.

I tried that with different values but it is still not so great

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14. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 5:22 AM in reply to [scott w]

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Scott,

You meant "CS6" allows you to save files in many older formats.

right?

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15. thomasNordic,

Jul 17, 2012 5:26 AM in reply to Monika Gause

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Monika,

Just one more word on that and then I close this „off topic“ to come back to the main topic : the tracing.

Monika, thanks for you tipp, could you indicate me some link where I could acutally see the effect or consequences of such a „conversion“ from CS6 to CS3? Where I could see the „before“ and „after“ a little like in the diet advertisment ;-)

Greetings from Wismar (the world is small!)

Thomas

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16. Monika Gause,

Jul 17, 2012 5:55 AM in reply to thomasNordic

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The consequences are that depending on what exactly is in the file, stuff may get expanded in one way or the other. Some objects might get rasterized, some are just expanded into other vector objects.

It depends. http://vektorgarten.de/illustrator-cs6.html

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Addon for Illustrator tracing to get same pixel smoothing as Vector Magic?

Jul 17, 2012 12:21 AM

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