I’ve used VectorMagic’s free tool before. It does an ok job, but you have to go back and manually clean up the file. Consider it a good pass at the doing the large scale work, but you have to go back and do the detailed work.
There also some companies that advertise doing this as well. You upload you bitmap and it is ready as a vector graphic in less than 48 hours for $50 or so. I’m assuming they are just ‘outsourcing’ the manual tracing somewhere. VectorMagic is one such company as well.
Just because it’s a SmartObject layer, doesn’t necessarily means it contains any vector information. It could mean someone just converted a bunch of rasterized layers into a SmartObject.
That’s what I was thinking. Like when you ask for an eps (hoping for a vector), and just get sent a photoshop eps.
What drives me most crazy is when I request hires images from a client, and they send me a WORD file with the images placed in them. Conversation goes:
“Actually, I need the original files, can you send those over?”
“Can’t you just use the ones in the Word file?”
“No, sorry”
“Oh, I didn’t keep the originals”
:smack:
I do print work for a (very large) web company client, who don’t get why anyone would want a hires image in this digital age, and so don’t keep any images bigger than what they need for the web. Grrrrr
Is there any way you can find out who created the logo in the first place - presumably they commissioned someone back in the day? Someone at the company must have a record of the commission? If you could contact the original designer, it would save you a heck of a lot of trouble.
Thats for all the advice. Vector Magic worked perfectly for my purposes.
But now: I can not for the life of me save this thing with an alpha channel. Ive got in in illustrator, did some color work on it, and try to save as an eps. Tried all options I can think of, the damn thing always is glued to the white bg in photoshop, no matter what. What The Heck?
Thanks,
That should work. Ive got some older version of the logo in EPS format, and when opened in photoshop, they have vector and transparency. How did they do that?
Basically, I need to have an eps file to deliver to to licensors. Will it be a problem for them if I give them the eps file with no alpha info? Is it standard for eps logos to be embedded on a white background?
I received an eps file from Vector Magic, and brought it into Illustrator to make different colored versions. The problem now, if a non transparent EPS is unacceptable, is that there seems to be no way to save an eps from Illustrator that has transparency recognized when opened in photoshop. The png would work, but then its not an EPS. How the heck do I create an eps in illustrator that has transparency?
The format rarely makes any difference. What matters if it’s a vector (object oriented) image, or a raster (pixel based) image.
I’m curious as to why you went through all this trouble to create a clean, vector image of the logo, and are now bringing it back into photoshop.
Vector images are transparent around their objects. So if you import a vector eps (e.g. an Illustrator file) into a layout program like Quark or InDesign, it’ll be outlined and transparent around the edges of the logo (assuming it was drawn correctly).
The beauty of that is, it’s resolution independent. You can blow it up to any size you want and the lines and edges will always be sharp and clean.
Just because an image is saved as an .eps, doesn’t mean it’s a vector image. That’s just the file format. It would seem Photoshop is unnecessarily being brought into the fold, unless there’s some esoteric reason?
In short… I guess the question is, what’s the end use for this logo?
I feel your pain as if it were my own. Something close to this just happened to me today. I asked them for all their photo assets… and they were all imbedded in a Word document. WHY?!
Last time I had this problem, I emailed the bitmap to India. Three hours later received a perfectly traced Illustrator EPS and a bill for $12… It was a hand-drawn script logo from 1912.
contact them at sales@nittanycreative.com as I recall they have a US office in Tampa, Florida for receiving payments. I’ve actually used this service twice and it has worked both times.