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AutoTrace (convert raster image to vector)


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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/28/2014 at 9:51 AM, MattP said:

Tracing will come in the future - but it will be a new 'Persona' (one of the main buttons along the top left of the window) so that it can have its own UI and tools. We have a fair few ideas for this - not just the obvious... :)  It's not coming any time soon though, I'm afraid to say...

Hello Matt,  this sounds good.... I'm a graphic-designer and have often to trace and vectorize my hand-drawings into vectors. At the moment I must do this in Adobe Illustrator. But using a macOS High Sierra - this still benefits the standalone version of CS6. Comming system-upgrades possibly will not do this anymore... So it would be great, if Affinity Designer one day will be able to suppose those poor hand-drawing designers to... ;-)  It's really a great software - and you and your collegues do a very well job, thanks a lot.

Kind regards, Marcel

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47 minutes ago, marno2013 said:

A correction: It should be SUPPORT not suppose - sorry

There should be an ‘Edit’ link at the bottom of each of your posts, but I wouldn’t worry about it. The thread title says ‘covert’ instead of ‘convert’, having remained uncorrected for almost five years now!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello!

I can't wait to use your amazing software, and finally, finally quit my Adobe subscription. I bought all three Affinity products just the other day. Now I have to learn that AD doesn't provide autotrace. That actually means I can't quit Adobe because I'm using that tool so much ...! I found a feature list from 2014. Do you have any update on when I can expect that tool to be provided? I think this should be an essential feature, and I almost can't believe AD doesn't have it. Maybe I just didn't find it? 

Thanks,

Frank

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

You haven't heard from me for ages - I'm not a "pro" designer and, to be frank, the Affinity trio I have on my MacBook (Designer, Photo and soon to be used in depth Publisher) pretty much covers my needs.

But ..

I did come across a number of occasions where illustrations were supplied in pixel format by people who have drawing talent but have as yet not woken up to the benefits of vector drawing (or just like freehand - some people I know create magic with just a pencil).  It's at that point I had to use brew to install inkscape because there's no auto-trace available in Designer (I used brew because the MacOS DMGs tend to lag a bit).

Therefore, please count me as another vote for this feature.  I know the "Affinity Way" is to go miles beyond the original concept which will take time, but I'd be quite happy to have at least the basics around.  Until then, inkscape it is..

Regards, Binc

 

Warning: dark, twisted sense of humour.  Do not feed after midnight.

Wheat and BS intolerant.  Only use genuine Guinness to lubricate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's really sad that auto trace feature is missing from a soon to professional tool..It's a must from the perspective of designing tool. Even illustrator has support of different trace types. Also corel draw has has a good support of Power trace and they are showcasing this feature for their products.

No auto trace is a setback to me as a designer.

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On 9/13/2017 at 6:57 AM, Scungio said:

Yes, I would love to have auto trace in Designer, it is convenient to have it within the program of course. But for some people to say they won't buy AD until Serif implements auto trace seems silly and short sighted to me.

 

For example, Vector Magic is always mentioned as an alternative and people turn up their noses, don't want to pay for the monthly cost of it at $7.95 or the one time purchase of $295. Okay, I get that but let us look at this with some perspective.

 

I recently let my Adobe CC Illustrator plan expire. I was paying $21.19 a month. Now I am using Affinity Designer, so what do I do about auto trace? Well, I can pay for the monthly plan of $7.95 for Vector Magic.

 

In the 3 years that I have owned Designer, I have paid just $40 for the program. If I had been paying for Vector Magic for the last 3 years too then the grand sum would be $326.20

 

The past 3 years I have paid out $762.84 for the Adobe CC Illustrator one app plan. 

 

So, you subtract the cost of Designer/Vector Magic from Adobe CC Illustrator and you end up with $436.64 in savings.

 

I can use Designer, have auto tracing with Vector Magic, and have an extra $436.64 in my bank account. To me that is a great solution/alternative until Serif gets auto trace implemented.

A professional using Vector Magic every day will make money by eliminating time and thus cost. In that respect it's not even that expensive. It is priced for pro's not for average users.

Just like Photoshop is priced for pro's. If you make money with the tools, cost is relative.

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We perhaps should find time to make a 1-2-3 tutorial with Inskcape (or directly potrace) auto trace tool tutorial. Is a bit painful to watch the thread, when the feature is there, it's powerful enough with the right settings, it's useful and it's free... But seems a lot of people find it difficult to handle, somehow.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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19 hours ago, SrPx said:

We perhaps should find time to make a 1-2-3 tutorial with Inskcape (or directly potrace) auto trace tool tutorial. Is a bit painful to watch the thread, when the feature is there, it's powerful enough with the right settings, it's useful and it's free... But seems a lot of people find it difficult to handle, somehow.

I was thinking the same thing. If I get time I'll do a video of my process. Also thought I might demonstrate how I use inkscape to deform vectors too (perspective etc.) Until the functionality is available in Affinity.

I'm sure once these features are added in they'll be many times better than current offerings, so I'm happy to wait.

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Yup. I indeed use inkspace for :  spirals (very recently, it was an essential part of a project), specially when also combining with distribution along the line, autotrace (very rarely, when I feel lazy or in lack of time), vector shape deformation aka warp, mesh gradients, and when painting something freehand that can only be vectors, as I totally love the inkscape ink tool (the brush line u get is more "wysiwyg", it's more 1:1 with your gesture and pressure). And that might seem like a lot, but with design based projects, my usage time of inkscape (if needed) would be at most like 2% in total time. As those things are fast to do and export. Am a bit short of free time atm, but will try to cover gaps left by others (meaning, if others do tutorials), in functionality not yet covered by Affinity, but needed for pro (or hobbyists!) workflows. As I've always believed it's a pity not to use a tool that you prefer -for different reasons- just because not knowing (or not willing to use them, but that's a wrong path, imo) a trick to supply the task or stage in the project with other tools. So, I don't mean only Inkscape, neither only A. Designer. My big issue is... dunno if wouldn't be too much off topic, or not "nice" towards Serif, to do such thing. 

And there's no section to....

Wait. There is. That one called free resources or something, in the forum. I guess one could make the tuts there, and link 'em whenever a user needs a particular workflow not present yet in Affinity. I hope that's a valid approach.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Ok, I need to say that image trace is one of the most important features next to the simplify and warp tool. I cannot design without them efficiently.

So yes +1, I support that idea. Really, you should do it.

Btw. you say you have ready engine, 4 years have passed and nothing happened in this case. Pity. I hope you will pay more attention to Affinity Designer.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/8/2019 at 6:55 AM, reallydamngood said:

you say you have ready engine

They also said they are not happy with the results from that engine and that it will take a fair amount of effort.

There are other things they can do in less time that will make at least as big an impact for a large number of users, so those things are getting priority right now.

They did say that this feature was likely to be years away, and so far that has held true.

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On 10/17/2019 at 10:23 PM, fde101 said:

They also said they are not happy with the results from that engine and that it will take a fair amount of effort.

There are other things they can do in less time that will make at least as big an impact for a large number of users, so those things are getting priority right now.

They did say that this feature was likely to be years away, and so far that has held true.

Implementing a feature that doesn't meet the standards is usually not a good thing.

People will complain about the quality produced.

 

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On 3/2/2015 at 3:55 AM, TonyB said:

What would be helpful is if people post images of what they would like to trace and a result of what the currently expect the output to look like.

Then, when we come around to writing a trace feature we will know the users expectations.

People love to complain about how long it is taking for their favorite "must have" feature to be implemented. Yet the above was requested of those who want this feature over 4 years ago, and I still see no examples posted by those who consider auto-tracing so essential.

Please show some real-world examples demonstrating why you consider auto-tracing essential. Please post screenshots of both the "before"  (the original raster) and "after" (auto-trace results), not merely at the same size, but zoomed in sufficiently to make the actual functional improvement evident. And show the results before any manual post-trace path editing.

The most often claimed "need" for auto-tracing is ostensibly to gain the technical advantages inherent to vector-based artwork: resolution independent scaling. So that improvement needs to be demonstrated in the examples. If the net result merely swaps one kind of ugly jaggedness (raster pixelation) for another (jagged or inaccurate vector paths), there is no functional gain.

Remember: Except for uses such as NC cutting fabrication, everything gets rasterized in its final reproduction anyway, whether printed on paper or viewed on a monitor.

JET

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