Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Vectorize that image


Vector Magic is a new on-line image tracing tool. It's the first such on-line tool I have tried (excepting the Google Suite, which doesn't have anything like it). It works pretty good. I used the mug shot of yours truly as a trial. The top set shows the original image and VM's result. The lower set shows Adobe Illustrator's result. I didn't have time to experiment in Illustrator enough to get a good result; thus the diseased-skin look. That perhaps shows the value of the VM tool - you can get a quick easy decent result, and the pro aspect of Illustrator requires more experience and time spent tinkering.

Adobe Streamline was a stand-alone product that did this. Then Adobe integrated it into Illustrator.

Vector Magic "Tokens" are available to do one conversion at the rates of 5/$14 or 20/$48. You can also get unlimited access to do conversions for $7.95/mo or buy the desktop application for $295. (You get two free tokens when you join.)

Special thanks to my buddy Tom for the link.

2 comments:

jasonjyee said...

that's pretty cool... although i use illustrator's tool quite a lot, so i probably fall into the "more experience" category.

Illustrator's tool is mostly taken from Macromedia's Freehand which had the same options and controls as the existing illustrator tool... it's the "new, more powerful tracing capabilities" from the page you linked. Adobe streamline was just awful. I tried it for a while as I was attempting to break free of macromedia and exclusively use Adobe products... but it was so bad that I kept getting the macromedia suite, just so I could have Freehand for the trace tool.

The Lone Beader® said...

Cool! Veyr pop art! :D