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Adobe Illustrator/Creat Outline in Illustrator 9

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Expert: - 9/22/2004


Question
Hi there! I know we can creat outline from text but can we do the same to images? I have some scanned plans and it would be great if i can find a way to make them into editable lines so that i don't have to trace them manually on CAD.

thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi Yvonne,

That is one of the most frequent questions I receive.  The short answer is 'no.'  The only way to create vector objects from raster images is to trace them manually.  There is a very basic tracing tool in Illustrator - you'll have to dig around, I forget where it's buried - but it doesn't work that well.  If you have a lot of these jobs, I'd suggest looking into Streamline.  It's an auto-tracing application built just for what you want to do. There is a demo available at Adobe.com.

Good luck!

Amy

Adobe Illustrator

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Amy

Expertise

I can help troubleshoot your Illustrator 9 through CS3 (and most CS4) problems and suggest the best way to get the results you need. Although I can help with some installation issues, my forte is prepress and how to use the tools and functions in the application itself.

Experience

I've been a graphic artist for over 20 years. Oh my God, 20 years.

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Bachelor of Fine Arts

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