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AutoTrace (convert raster image to vector)


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41 minutes ago, kpeg said:

Please list the totally free programs that vectorize in a pro environment with export to any software - thank you Ken

There are many in this thread.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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1 hour ago, Sotalo said:

1 - Adobe Capture is a mobile app for Android and iOS. It's not available on PC.

2 - App doesn't support exporting 😕 Assets are saved directly to Creative Cloud libraries for use in other programs.

Your solution to this one missing feature doesn't even work in a professional environment, and it's far from an all-in-one package. It costs $600 per year to properly use and you took what is currently a two-program problem and made it three. Meanwhile, there are totally free programs that vectorize in a pro environment with export to any software, not just Adobe.

This workflow is already DOA across many programs. I will continue to use free external software, but having it integrated in Designer would open up a lot of doors to making workflows even better.

Please list the totally free programs that vectorize in a pro environment with export to any software - thank you Ken

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Thanks for your comment OLD BRUCE but I have followed the thread but there does not seem to be a consensus on what a good totally free program would be until Soltalo suggested that in his last comment in the thread. I was hoping he would provide the names that he actually uses. Ken

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1270044199_ScreenShot2021-12-08at1_22_20PM.thumb.png.0ff9918cf9c7e59fa9cb64407c9a291d.png

That should be enough for you to find one post and do some research. You will have do some of the work to find any others.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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You're welcome.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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There's a list of some common vectorization/tracing apps.

 

Quote

This is a common question and requirement for Affinity Designer and instead of manual hand-tracing there are a bunch of third party tools, which can be used as workarounds for such demands ...

Some forum threads about bitmap tracing/vectorization:

Vectorization and autotracing software for Win + Macs:

Online tracing tools:

Online centerline supporting tracing tools:

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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7 hours ago, Sotalo said:

1 - Adobe Capture is a mobile app for Android and iOS. It's not available on PC.

2 - App doesn't support exporting 😕 Assets are saved directly to Creative Cloud libraries for use in other programs.

Your solution to this one missing feature doesn't even work in a professional environment, and it's far from an all-in-one package. It costs $600 per year to properly use and you took what is currently a two-program problem and made it three. Meanwhile, there are totally free programs that vectorize in a pro environment with export to any software, not just Adobe.

This workflow is already DOA across many programs. I will continue to use free external software, but having it integrated in Designer would open up a lot of doors to making workflows even better.

Yes, it’s not a solution for PC users. Sorry I’m not a PC user. Don’t even own a computer.

But you are wrong on point 2.) You can export to other applications. I even explained how to do it. 

You are also wrong that using this workaround will cost you money.

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14 hours ago, KTDN said:

Yes, it’s not a solution for PC users. Sorry I’m not a PC user. Don’t even own a computer.

But you are wrong on point 2.) You can export to other applications. I even explained how to do it. 

You are also wrong that using this workaround will cost you money.

I tried researching what export formats it supports, and nowhere on Adobe's page does it specify export to SVG. All it mentions is saving to libraries. Needless to say, the program is intended for cell phone cameras and taking the results to a separate program rather than performing a quality scan. Cameras introduce distortion and perspective, you need scans. And if the drawing is generated initially from a digital raster program, it doesn't make sense to spit out to a cell phone to get the job done. Adobe Capture's vectorizing is VERY quick and dirty, not professional in any sense of the word. There are other features in that app more worthwhile, like finding fonts on printed media. But if you want to vectorize a drawing in Adobe's suite, just scan it and use Illustrator. Personally, I just use Inkscape because it's free. But a single program that can do it all would be Godlike.

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1 hour ago, Sotalo said:

I tried researching what export formats it supports, and nowhere on Adobe's page does it specify export to SVG. All it mentions is saving to libraries. Needless to say, the program is intended for cell phone cameras and taking the results to a separate program rather than performing a quality scan. Cameras introduce distortion and perspective, you need scans. And if the drawing is generated initially from a digital raster program, it doesn't make sense to spit out to a cell phone to get the job done. Adobe Capture's vectorizing is VERY quick and dirty, not professional in any sense of the word. There are other features in that app more worthwhile, like finding fonts on printed media. But if you want to vectorize a drawing in Adobe's suite, just scan it and use Illustrator. Personally, I just use Inkscape because it's free. But a single program that can do it all would be Godlike.

Adobe Capture can export to SVG once you save it to the library. Adobe Capture can access the camera or the photo album and once you select the vector image that's traced, you can export it as SVG, PDF, the image itself natively. I can take a drawing I did from my sketchbook, snap a clean photo, import it to Capture and then export it via AirDrop to my iMac as SVG. Or to Files on the iPad for any vector app to import. The reason I have Capture is because I had an Adobe ID which is free but dropped Creative Suite due to the ridiculous monthly subscription plan that makes no sense. I always use a dark background so that it scans in only the white paper and the black ink using the camera when I have to. There's nothing unprofessional about its results because it can be cleaned up during production ( as in using Designer ). 

Also, when I do my artwork digitally on iPad such as Procreate, I can share it to Capture to be converted to SVG. In fact, Affinity Designer works on iPad so there's that, although I prefer the desktop version since it runs better and easier to deal with when using two monitors. 

And it's not limited to iPhone but works with iPad. Would it be nice if vector trace was in Affinity? Sure, but this is the best workaround I can find. 

This is the post I made regarding Adobe Capture in detail: 

And this one: 

I eventually solved the problem after doing the shirt so now I know what to do. 

Hope this clears it up. 

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Any camera will introduce both lens distortion and perspective issues, not to mention if the paper isn't perfectly flat you won't be getting the same results as a perfect high-res scan from a scanner. If your designs work then they work, but this process is NOT ideal for everyone. Drawings that require perspective, faces, and shapes that would be more sensitive to distortions would benefit far greater from a proper scan. I'm selling prints of drawings from graphite and ink/pen with textural details: cell phones don't capture that level of detail as cleanly or accurately as what I need. And working 13x19 at 600dpi with many layers and a mix of vectors and bitmaps kind of rules out the option to work totally on mobile.

In a professional environment, everything that stands in the way of getting work done should be eliminated.

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On 12/5/2021 at 10:00 AM, KTDN said:

Don’t pay for any vector tracing apps. Despite not wanting to use Adobe being the primary reason I began using Affinity in the first place, the solution to all of this for now is very simple: get Adobe Capture. You can export shapes directly to Designer after saving to your Capture library, just hit the ellipsis menu on the image you want to export, chose SVG, and select Designer as the destination app. It’s the quickest, best vector tracing solution period. All you need is a creative cloud account. And if you really want to see Affinity add tracing to Designer get a Creative Cloud subscription and ditch Designer for Illustrator. Haha 😂🤣😂

I just tried Adobe Capture for iPad (because I needed to vectorize some huge patterns for a project), following your advice. The results are plain fantastic and the ability to share directly to Affinity apps is surprising. I hope they won’t take away this feature and limit the sharing  to CC to force a subscription, as they did in the past with other apps.

Thanks again. All the best!

StudioLink 256gb 11’ M1 iPad Pro

iPadOS 17 Public Beta 1

iPad Magic Keyboard

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On 12/9/2021 at 3:03 PM, Sotalo said:

Any camera will introduce both lens distortion and perspective issues, not to mention if the paper isn't perfectly flat you won't be getting the same results as a perfect high-res scan from a scanner. If your designs work then they work, but this process is NOT ideal for everyone. Drawings that require perspective, faces, and shapes that would be more sensitive to distortions would benefit far greater from a proper scan. I'm selling prints of drawings from graphite and ink/pen with textural details: cell phones don't capture that level of detail as cleanly or accurately as what I need. And working 13x19 at 600dpi with many layers and a mix of vectors and bitmaps kind of rules out the option to work totally on mobile.

In a professional environment, everything that stands in the way of getting work done should be eliminated.

Sure, a flatbed scanner will do the job when you're in the office or home studio. However, mobile wise, if you want to scan, there's SwiftScan for the iPhone which I use a lot. Now, if you had a camera stand and a crane rod with the adapter to hold the phone while laying the artwork on the floor or table, you can use a bluetooth remote to take photos/scans that way. I have the stand/crane and it works. However, if you have a high end camera like a DSLR/mirrorless, that would do the job better than a smartphone. 

However, working with this many layers on 600 dpi, then you definitely need to do that on the desktop or laptop. The iPad version of Affinity Designer works well but it depends on the available RAM and storage space to do the job. If you're doing 16 x 19, then the desktop with an external monitor will be much better of an experience so you can view everything at once, one with preview at the window fit size and the other full size in real time. That's how I do it. 

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  • 2 months later...
4 minutes ago, Joem94 said:

Only Mac, isnt' it? 

That's right. I'm working with my 2017 Macbook Pro, and it works smooth. I saw most of the people use the app for Ipad, but considering both devices are Apple manufactured, they should work the same way. It actually helps me a lot because I use to combine Affinity Designer+Inkscape, but Inkscape does not run smoothly on mac, and also have to make more operations to get a final clean .svg archive.

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  • 2 months later...

Well, such and old topic and yet functionality is still missing. Im disappointed. I have to use FREE AND OPEN SOURCE Inkscape to do what PAID AND PRIOPIETARY software SHOULD do from day 1.

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8 Years and no autotrace hmmmm...maybe Elon Musk should do to Serif what he is going to do to Twitter - Buy, Purge, Hire, Innovate and be wildly profitable. :27_sunglasses:

Win 11, ACER Predator PT516-51s, 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz, RAM - as often as possible B|

AFFINITY DESIGNER 1.10.5.1342

AFFINITY PHOTO 1.10.5.1342

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