Quick Tip: The New Image Trace Panel in Illustrator CS6
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Quick Tip: The New Image Trace Panel in Illustrator CS6

on Jul 2nd 2012 with 7 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Version: Illustrator CS6
  • Level: Beginner
  • Length: 10:20

The new Image Trace function in Adobe Illustrator CS6 has some major improvements and some major headaches. In this Quick Tip you can see it in action!

 
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Cheryl Graham trained as a traditional artist in drawing and painting. These days she spends more time in front of the computer than the easel. She's been using Adobe Illustrator for over 15 years. Her Illustrator work has been featured in the "The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book" and "Real World Illustrator."  

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  • http://www.chewedkandi.net Sharon Milne

    Another great video tutorial slash rant – fantastic Cheryl!

    I noticed the extra null fills with Image Trace in CS6, I found that annoying also. However I wish they’d introduce a feature that with black and white, you could possibly alter the black or the white on the fly to a different colour.

  • Cheryl

    Thanks Sharon :) Yes, that would be a useful feature.

    I forgot to mention 2 things:

    “Output to Swatches” is no longer an option. You can always select the expanded trace and create a new color group from he selection, however.

    To save a preset of your own,click the flyout menu at the top right!

  • Harry

    I think the ‘Low Color’ preset icon at the top corresponds to the “16 Colors” preset in the drop-down list, not to the ‘Low Fidelity Photo’ preset.

    Also the presets that are tied to the 6 icons at the top are not editable/deletable, i.e., they are hardcoded – just select one of these preset icons and notice in the flyout menu that Delete and Rename are grayed out.

    Also as you mentioned, there are duplicate presets of these hardcoded presets in the drop down list. But if the user changes the settings of these duplicate presets, it will not change the corresponding hardcoded preset.That means that when you click on one of the icons at the top, the result is always predictable. Not so for the presets in the drop down – they can be deleted and renamed…so your ‘Shades of gray’ preset could be different from mine.

    • Cheryl

      Excellent points. I hadn’t thought about the changeable vs. hard coded aspect of the duplicate pre-sets. I still think the row of icons are redundant. In CS5, once you alter the settings on a preset, its name changes to “Custom.” But you can always select the preset again from the drop-down and the settings snap back. What’s your overall opinion of Image Trace? Improvement, or…?

      • Harry

        In my opinion, the row of icons at the top are meant for newbies/those who do not intend to go into the details of each of the various settings in the panel. They just want a one-shot solution to tracing of the images. I think many users, even pro ones, were overwhelmed & found it difficult to come to grips with the various settings in the previous Live Trace dialog & they wanted a simpler interface to deal with. So I think the new simpler UI is welcome. I also think that’s why some of the settings which not all users would like to experiment with are under the Advanced section.

        I also found the tool tips to be really handy in understanding what each setting does, so for example, the Noise setting you referred to is pretty clear to me when I read ‘Higher value means less noise’. I usually read whatever tooltips the application provides to learn the new features. It is just a matter of wrapping one’s head around the various settings.

        In my opinion, Image Trace is a very big improvement over Live Trace when I compare the results & the fact that I have to deal with so less complexity.

  • wash

    very useful tutorial, thank you very much

  • Daniel Thomassin

    Super merci beaucoup pour vos formation tutoriel !Bonne fête de pâques à tous !!