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Problems with Image Trace and fidelity to original image - trying to make pixelated vectors

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Hi Everyone

I'm new here.  Nice to meet you.

 

 

I just ordered a 24" USCutter SC that's on the way - so I've been playing with some different graphics. 

 

I'm going to be using the vinyl cutter solely for paint masking (some small, some very large paintings). 

 

 

The problem I have is this:

 

When I try and trace a raster image in order to vectorize it -- the fidelity to the original image is off dramatically. 

I'm essentially trying to make sharp pixelated images that I'll then cut out on the SC.  Is there a way to go about making a vector image of 

a highly pixelated raster image?

 

I'd prefer not to set each anchor point individually because I'll be making some very larger very complex images. 

Is there a way to trace out an image down to its original pixels?

 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks very much

post-87050-0-10164800-1403038366_thumb.p

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Your gonna wanna prep your images in a raster program like Photoshop, all the while keeping in mind,

"Garbage in, Garbage out." The more pielated your image (low resolution, poor quality) the more

work it's gonna take to get a good trace out of... if you even can get a good one.

The important stuff, you're gonna wanna draw from scratch in a vector program.

Save the trace for emergencies or as a starting point to work with the nodes to get what you want.

Pro tip... use a little Gaussian Blur on your pixelated images to smooth out the jaggies a little.

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I think he's wanting to go the other way. He wants a vector that looks like a pixelated image zoomed in. The larger the image you start with the better. So resize your raster image as big as you can to emphise the pixles. Not sure how to do it in Adobe, but in Inkscape you want to turn off the smooth corner and supress speckle settings of the trace tool.

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After re-reading, you may be right, DS...

If so, then you'll want as much contrast as reasonable between the image and the background.

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Hi - yes.

Here is the image I was trying to rasterize.  It is fully black and white - with sharp edges. 

I would like to cut this in vinyl exactly how it is -- so I would need the vector image to follow the exact outline and not the somewhat rounded trace that illustrator gives me. 

I've tried doing this through photoshop, by selecting the shape and making a working path - but its just as bad it seems. 

 

Your thoughts are appreciated. 

Thanks

model.bmp

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Thanks for taking the time to do that. 

 

I wish there was a way to have an absolute exact trace.  I'd like the whole thing to just be horizontal and vertical lines. 

 

This is just a test to see what my limitations are, by the way, not actually going to cut this thing out. 

 

 

I'm going to keep doing some research - and see if anyone else chimes in.  Thanks again.

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I took your bitmap, blew it up by 500% then traced it in Inkscape and it came out with all straight lines and 90 degree angles, at least as best as I can tell it did. I think the key in Inkscape is unchecking the smooth and speckle options.

model.svg

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Ok awesome

This looks great. 

I didn't have inkscape (have mac 10.5) to test but I'll get on that right away. 

 

I appreciate you taking a minute to sort through that for me. 

 

Thanks very much

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You definitely have a unique application for the trace feature. A lot of programming has been done to try and avoid the final product you want. LOL I have never tried to tweak things the other direction but typically the live trace feature is underwhelming IMO. I am sure with some work you can achieve similar results to Skarekrows trace by following his example. From your screen shot you look to be using CC version or CS6 so things will be a little different from mine to yours. I know they revamped the trace engine in CS6 and it supposedly does a better faster job on high res images. Comparisons say not as good on B&W simple stuff.

 

I would try Threshold at 1, Path Fitting at 0, Min area at 0, Corner angle at 180, blur at 0. I think it will turn out just about what you want. 

 

I think if you click ignore white it will ignore the threshold setting altogether.

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I forgot I have cs5 at home and i tried these presets and it worked fairly well. 

I think a combination of darkshadow & skarekrow's suggestion of blowing it up first, then vectorizing with your suggested live trace options produces the most faithful outline. 

 

THANKS EVERYONE!

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Glad we could help. When you get your final product produced post a photo. I'm curious to see what it is you're doing.

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* for those wondering - I followed the aforementioned steps and then used the Graffix Square Up plugin which squares up lines within 20 degrees of verticality - came out perfectly. 

 

 

I make oil paintings - and I usually use Tamiya tape to do the masking.  Sometimes I go through several rolls for each painting. 

I've attached two examples (2012).  Clearly translating large shapes with paint mask vinyl will make my studio practice much more expedient -- I'm hoping. 

 

Thanks again everyone for your help. 

 

 

post-87050-0-79610400-1403145900_thumb.j

post-87050-0-16030100-1403145915_thumb.j

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