Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 7/8/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi,



I'm trying to find an easy way to convert any picture to a set of horizontal monochrome continuous vector lines of varying thickness still representing the original picture. The resulting vectors are then sent to a cutter for vinyl preparation.

Thanks in advance for help.

ANSWER: Frederic,

I deal with this a lot in my line of work.

The most accurate way, especially when using a cutter/router is to trace them by hand. Otherwise you can try to use the live trace option (when you place a bitmap image into cs2/3 look at the options bar at top, there is a live trace button).

However, I would strongly recommend tracing this by hand for absolute accuracy.

Thanks

Kevin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks ... of course the hand remains the best tool to be used but not everyone is gifted for drawing ... I know tools does exist to end up with the expected result in one clic or two ... I had one 6 years ago under Mac PPC in disquettes (Tech'line), but the product is discontinued. Cheers.

Answer
Hi Frederic,

Again, you can try using the live trace option with the presets for technical drawing and see if that works. Live trace is the only option that will even come close, however, it will require some tweaking and careful checking on your part. My concern with this method however is it does tend to break up paths instead of one continuous line which can cause

As I am sure there are other applications that can handle this with one or two clicks, that is your only option in Adobe Illustrator besides hand drawing.

Thanks

Kevin