ILLY CS3

[3Deep]

I know this program is old but I just don't believe in upgrading unless I really need to, but my question is what have some of you found is the best setting in the auto trace program to get the best results in line art...oh and I still us Illy 10 LOL, dude I'm way behind the eight ball

darryl

[jonbravado]

I'd work the graphic in photoshop to create good hard lines and high resolution/contrast, and then place into Illy as a black and white bitmap/tiff - at LEAST 300 dpi - then the standard trace settings in illy work great.

All the heavy lifting should be done in photoshop in my opinion.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I rarely need vectors. I like to do my seps in Photoshop and I then output my films from there.  I can barely boot ILLY, so when I need vectors, I go to Signlab, but talk about OLD!!! My version of Signlab is 10+ years behind the times.

The only use I have for vectors is for Cad Cutting for heat press and signage. For films, I'm lost.

@ jonb, why would I want/need to use Illustrator? I've read and read that people use it. I'm ready to learn it but don't really even know where to start.

[3Deep]

I use photoshop already to do what your talking about, but sometimes I get art that I need to just hit a quick down and dirty on and move on.

[jonbravado]

Illustrator (unless it's spot process, process, or index) is our go-to program.  Our art director is a madman in illustrator and just makes everything cleaner, sharper with vector graphics - better fades/gradients - and accurip seps it out nice.

it's not for everyone - but in our market it's the ONLY vector program to use.  Some folks are Corel hold-outs (which does most of what illy can do) - it's a great program.  We deal mainly in corporate business and logo preservation is top concern.  So we're dealing with EPS, PDF or AI files all day every day.

With that said, the best artists on this board probably don't even open Illustrator to make their artwork.  I was surprised to learn what i have since i started following this board.  Great stuff and there are so many ways to skin a cat!

[blue moon]

trace really started working properly in CS6 or newer. It is worth upgrading just for that. We used to send stuff out all the time, but now maybe few times per year.

pierre


EDIT: corrected to CS6

[Homer]

Like Grampa Stan said, we don't ever use vector stuff anymore unless it's something in the sign shop that needs to be cut. More I learn about working with raster images, farther away I get from vector, I really dislike the odd nodes and bs that comes with vector stuff...However, it's nice to keep text clean so I will give it that.

[dirkdiggler]

you will need at least cs6 for the latest trace.  and it is good.

[blue moon]

you will need at least cs6 for the latest trace.  and it is good.

thanx for catching that! I fixed it in the original post.

pierre

[Sbrem]

trace really started working properly in CS6 or newer. It is worth upgrading just for that. We used to send stuff out all the time, but now maybe few times per year.

pierre


EDIT: corrected to CS6

That is very true, much much better. And of course, optimizing files in PS before tracing is sometimes necessary. I'm not sure Darryl, but I think you can still buy a hard copy upgrade of CS6 from Adobe...

Steve

Steve

[3Deep]

I'll have to check and see for a better tracing program I could upgrade for that, from what you fella's are saying.  thanks

[Jwcontractscreen]

I'm the exact opposite of some of you, I know nothing about doing anything in Photoshop, but use Illustrator for EVERY output we do. We rip 40+ films a day and ONLY use Illustrator.

[Dottonedan]

The trick in any version is to go big.  Take the file into Photoshop and enlarge as large as can be to keep it clean. Yes, I said clean. 


Keep it at a high rez like 300 (at the large size) and then place that into Illy.  Then play with the various setting of auto trace.  Comes out very clean.

[jvanick]

I just had a really hard one with all kinds of wierd stuff going on in illustrator that I couldn't get clean vectors out of...

opened it in Photoshop and outputted my films from there... worked like a charm...

really have to remember that trick in the future as it saved me a LOT of time.

(extremely happy CC user here tho...)

now if I could just learn how to truly do vector editing in Illustrator, I'd be really happy... anybody know of a great class/bootcamp for Illustrator?

[Dottonedan]

I just spoke with Pierre about this last night. Inspired by the idea a project a fellow artist is looking into for online training a group of people at one time, I'm looking into programs that allow me to do one on one training (on your computer, using your programs and environment. I'll log in and do program/seps training using something like TeamViewer, LogMeIn or JoinMe. Still working out the training cost. Either a flat rate for a 4 hrs all at once or broken up into hr sessions. Then again, or per hr.  I don' know if those are the right type of programs to use for this tho, so I'm researching.