Vector Magic: Convert Raster Images to Vector Images
The other day at work, one of our temps was tracing an image in Illustrator to 'vectorize' it. I recommended using Vector Magic. I then sat and reminisced about college and the days of Adobe Streamline. Anyhow, Vector Magic takes your raster image and converts it to a vector image. There are several steps during the process that let you fine tune what your result will look like, from smoothing to number of output colors.
The advantage of turning a raster image into a vector image is that vector art is infinitely resizable. You'll never lose resolution. Last time I checked, Vector Magic offers a couple of free uses of the tool for free. Charges after that are minimal, especially since one could spend 15-20 minutes tracing an image in Illustrator, when you could run it through Vector Magic in a minute; a savings of 19 minutes...1/3 an hour's pay.
There is talk about Vector Magic being purchasable in the future as a desktop application. I'm looking forward to it.
Labels: Graphic Design, Illustration
