Expert: Amy - 3/16/2006

Question
I am using CS 11.0.0 versions of Photoshop and Illustrator.

I want to take a black bitmap image from photoshop and export
the paths to vector form in illustrator.

If drag the jpeg from ps to il and use the trace tool, i get a very
poor rendition.  If i select the object in ps and make a work path,
and export paths to il, I can't seem to get anything but a blank
image.

To sum it up, I am taking over the design for a company. Their
mark is solid black and white but it is only in bitmap form. I
want it to be vectored with as much quality as possible.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Answer
Hi Seth,

This is a common situation for designers.

You have already touched upon the best (if you can call it that) way to do the job.  It's creating and exporting the paths from PhotoShop with the lowest/tightest tolerance you can get.... I believe that's still .5.

The document you're opening in Illustrator isn't actually blank.  If you do a Select All, you'll see the artwork.  You need to assign it a fill or a stroke, that's all.

You won't be thrilled with the results. They are choppy at best. You can sometimes use the smooth tool to smooth out the paths. They are much better than what you can get with the auto-trace tool.

Honestly, though, I have to tell you that I usually resort to re-creating the artwork in Illustrator. Especially if fonts are involved.

If you have an unlimited budget, Adobe makes a product called streamline that does a slightly better job of creating vector graphics from bitmaps.

Hope this helps a little.
Amy Pace