Expert: Amy - 5/11/2004

Question
Thanks Amy for your definitely detail and thorough teaching!
I think I prefer your 2nd suggestion, I have something would like
to ask you to teach me more about in Adobe Illustrator (I am new
to Adobe Illustrator, very NEW)
I had quote your wors on below and would like you to elaborate
it into more simplier step in you do not mind to teach me further.
"...Once you become familiar with the Pen tool and how to use it to draw combinations of curved and straight lines, you will become fairly adept at tracing objects and can obtain accurate results..."

cuz I do not know what is pen, and how to use it.

thanks, many thanks!

gus






-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
hi,
I like a fonts on a magazine very much so I use scanner to scan into a jpeg file.

but when I reprint it was very blur, I want to
make it so smooth like vector graphic, is there a tool in illustrator (or photoshop?) that can
find the edge of a object (base on RGB or HUE or other value) then 'selects' the outline of the font, and becomes a layer of a vector object.

please let me know if I have not put my question clear enough. many thanks!

gus

Answer -
Hi Gus,

You can use Illustrator or PhotoShop or a combination of the two to trace a bitmap image but the results leave a lot to be desired.

In PhotoShop, you can use the Magic Wand tool (W) with an appropriate amount of tolerance to select your solid shapes.  Then open the Paths Window and create working paths from those selected areas.  Use the little flyout menu on the upper right hand corner of the Paths Window to do this. Then save those paths and export them to Illustrator (that's found under File).  The main problem here is that the path will be very jaggedy and will require a lot of additional tweaking in Illustrator. Once in Illustrator, you will have to use the smoothing tool, the pencil tool, and probably the convert anchor points tool to smooth out your shapes. Depending on the complexity of your shape, this can take hours.

There is also an auto trace tool in Illustrator (hidden under the blend tool), but jagged results will occur here as well. To use it, simply open your JPEG as a template in Illustrator, select the tool and click on a solid shape with it. Then, just as in the PhotoShop method, you must spend a lot of time cleaning it up with other tools.

In my opinion, it is much simpler to import your JPEG into Illustrator as a template and trace it manually.  This is usually best done with the pen tool using a point-to-point, click and drag drawing technique.  Once you become familiar with the Pen tool and how to use it to draw combinations of curved and straight lines, you will become fairly adept at tracing objects and can obtain accurate results.

Good luck with it - it's one of the most complained-about tasks in Illustrator!

-Amy Pace

Answer
Hi again,

The Pen tool in Illustrator is the one shaped like a tip of a fountain pen, the third one down on the left side of the tool palette.

Select it and use it to draw by clicking your mouse from place to place on your artboard.  This is different from the pencil tool, which you use by clicking and dragging more like a paintbrush.

Here is how to draw a straight line:
To draw straight segments with the pen tool:

1. Position your mouse where you want the line to start and click once (do not drag).

2. Now pick a place for the next point in your line and click again. You can hold down shift while you click to constrain the line's angle to multiples of 45 degrees - handy if you're drawing a rectangle.

3. Continue clicking the pen tool to create additional straight segments.

4. To leave the path open, hit Ctrl and click anywhere away from all objects. To close the path (as in drawing a square), click on the first anchor point you drew.

Here is how you draw a curved line with the Pen tool.

1. Position your mouse where you want the line to start and click once (do not drag).

2. Now pick a place for the next point in your line and click again and drag - you will see a curve form.

3. To leave the path open, hit Ctrl and click anywhere away from all objects. To close the path (as in drawing a circle), click on the first anchor point you drew.

This is very simplified, of course.  If you will use the help menu in Illustrator, there is a very good outline on how to draw curved lines and edit them once you have drawn them.  I will not mislead you, it takes a lot of practice to be able to draw exactly what you want using the Pen tool, but it's one of my favorite tools for tracing things, like we discussed in your first message.

Good luck with it!
Amy