Creating a Vector image

[Lord Pikey]

please excuse my ignorace on the subject but im looking for a program that i can make "vector" images out of from a photo.

I have Photoshop elements 7 but i think it needs to have a "pen" tool to do the task. am i right?

what other programs can creat them? the simplest the better really and can i be really cheaky and see if there are any free ones out there?

Thanks all

LP

[jon-]

What are you trying to achieve? If you want to draw vector shapes onto an image then most things will suffice. If you want to use a filter to turn a bitmap photo into something that looks like it was drawn with vector tools then you'll need to use a different subset of cheap programs.

Photoshop (full) could do both. But isn't cheap.

[Stig]

Illustrator will do a fair job - but again, you'll need a full version

[selwonk]

Try: http://vectormagic.com/home

[twister]

Inkscape has a pretty good bitmap tracer built-in, and if you're not entirely happy with the results it then also gives you all the other tools you'll need to tweak, twiddle and tune to perfection...

[miniman]

With all due respect, creating good vector images is nothing to do with the software and everything to do with the basic illustration and artistic skills.

[twister]

Actually it's everything to do with the software, if you don't possess the necessary skills to create the artwork from scratch... Yes, a talented artist ought to be able to create masterpieces with the most rudimentary of tools, but the rest of us will gladly take whatever assistance is offered by the code.

[miniman]

twister said:

Actually it's everything to do with the software, if you don't possess the necessary skills to create the artwork from scratch... Yes, a talented artist ought to be able to create masterpieces with the most rudimentary of tools, but the rest of us will gladly take whatever assistance is offered by the code.

I meant, if you don't have the basic creative skills, then the software can only get you so far.

[Dr MAD]

We create vector artwork on a daily basis and have tried most of the software approaches - Illustrator isn't bad but I personally think that CorelDraw does a better job. The quality of the result is largely dependent upon the quality of the image you're tracing - crap in, crap out as they say.

The best way though, providing the image isn't too complex is to recreate it from scratch

[Lord Pikey]

Thanks all.

I am tempted to creat the image from scratch but that leads to the problem of trying to get hold of the correct font for the text.

The image that i want to vector is on my previous post about the font

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[militantmandy]

Lord Pikey said:

Thanks all.

I am tempted to creat the image from scratch but that leads to the problem of trying to get hold of the correct font for the text.

The image that i want to vector is on my previous post about the font

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

i posted this in the wrong thread.

"i'm bored in work. i'll do it for you if you like..."

done the poster, trying to find a suitable font.

[Lord Pikey]

Thats great.

Thanks

Edited by Lord Pikey on Tuesday 12th May 10:02

[militantmandy]

Font's not the right one....i won't be offended if you don't use it!

Edited by militantmandy on Tuesday 12th May 14:16

[Scott328i]

militantmandy said:

Font's not the right one....i won't be offended if you don't use it!

Tropy



snigger

[militantmandy]

Oh. My. God. I shall sack myself immediatley.

[militantmandy]

militantmandy said:

Oh. My. God. I shall sack myself immediatley.

hu um, nothing to see here....move along.

[Lord Pikey]

Cheers,

Thanks for that. Much easier than me bodging it!

[militantmandy]

No worries. If you need a higher res or vector file type i can email you an eps or something.