I’ve read a little about this, and I gather it’s not really a conversion per-se as much as a re-creation as a vector file. But here’s the bottom line. I have a jpg photo (two of them, actually) that I need to provide to someone as a vector file. Would any of you mind doing this for me? My email is in my profile.
Thanks!
E3
I guess I should amend this to say if you’re interested in helping me, of course if you’ll post here, I can email you the file as well.
One option is to open the file in Illustrator and trace it, then fill the solid areas with color fills, but depending on the complexity of the original this could take a long time.
Not in a more recent version (of Illustrator – CS2 or 3) – there’s a “Live Trace” function that basically does this for you.
How well does this actually work? The automated tools in Photoshop only work OK, needing substantial human intervention.
I’m not sure about the complexity, in that it’s a silhouette, which isn’t too complex as far as detail I suppose, but he’s standing on a beach. The picture in question is posted here.
That photo will be impossible to convert to a vector image, and not look like a silhouette.
What do you plan to do with the subtle background gradation?
The early versions of Illustrator came with a program called Streamline that traced raster images and yielded vector artwork. You could adjust the contrast, brighness, ‘levels’, and other parameters ofthe input image; the number of flat colours the that the imput image was transformed into; and the amount of detail it tried to capture… all of which affected the complexity and accuracy of the resulting trace.
Streamline hasn’t been updated in years, though; I believe that equivalent capabilities are built into newer versions of Illustrator, as mentioned.
Now, freeware equivalents, on the other hand, would be useful to find. Anyone know of any?
Pretty well, in my experience, but I’ve generally only used it on pictures that are amenable to vectorization in the first place (cartoons and the like), not on messy real-world photos.
Here you go.
And here is a different version with a sharper outline for the main figure
I used this one to convert JPGs of logos to files that a plotter/cutter could handle: Raster to Vector. I don’t know how well it would work for the OP’s purposes.
That’s one powerful vector!
It crashes Safari 2.0.4
I was afraid of that.
I was asked to provide a vector file of that image so it could be put on a 30" banner.
I appreciate the input. I just don’t know much about it. 
E3
That’s awesome. Thanks!
What do you mean by “powerful vector”?
I was kidding. For some reason, Mangetout’s .SVG file crashes Safari.
And FireFox.
Must be some OS X incompatibility.
Inkscape on OS X opens it no prob!
The Gimp on OS X rasterises it and opens it no prob as well.
(Though, since those two programs are Unix-style X Window System programs, they don’t take advantage on OS X’s capabilities, and you have to open the images from within the program.)
Yes, I downloaded it, and Adobe Illustrator opens it fine, but for some reason the Quicktime SVG code used in the browsers must be choking on it.
I used Inkscape’s ‘Trace Bitmap’ function to create it.
It doesn’t produce the same kind of vector image that a person would if they were drawing or tracing it by hand though - it basically reduces the image to a (user defined) number of colour levels, then creates smoothed vector layers for each of these colours, whereas a human artist would concentrate on reproducing the shapes of objects and their shading.
I think what’s needed here is for an artist to reproduce the image in vector form - that way, the gradients in the background could be replicated properly and artistically, instead of just coming out as posterised bands of colour as in my attempt.
Mangetout—I just wanted to thank you for quite possibly changing my world. I’m a professional illustrator. I generally work in Photoshop, because of the control/ease it provides. But I often would be better served by having a vector version of my art. I tried out Adobe Streamline years ago, but was totally unimpressed. But Inkscape … the SVG it produces is literally indistinguishable from my bitmap source. It’s amazing. I think I’m going to have to reconfigure my whole workflow.
Thanks again!
