In this blog, you will learn how to use Illustrator’s image trace feature to produce a vector illustration from a photograph.

Vector graphics are used in a wide variety of industries and are the most popular form of graphic art. You can use vector graphics for things like logos, illustrations, and icons but using vector graphics also has its own set of rules.

In this blog, we will be looking at the steps in order to vectorize an image using Adobe Illustrator. The Illustrator’s pen tool is very versatile and it is one of the most crucial tools in vectorizing an image.

Illustrator comes with a plethora of other tools that make the creation of vector images a fun and simple task to do. So let us discuss How to vectorize an image in illustrator?

Step by Step Guide to Vectorize an Image

Pick an Image to Convert into Vector

If you’re using this process, it doesn’t really matter what image you have…the only thing that really matters is the size of your graphics.

Using landscapes or pictures with multiple subjects in them makes it more difficult to turn them into vectors. It’s better to edit a single subject than a landscape or the like.

Preferably, the image should have a white or transparent background and have a relatively low resolution. It’ll need to be in a format like JPG, GIF, or PNG.

Select an Image Trace Preset

Illustrator has an Image Trace tool, which is found in the Tool menu. This tool lets you turn raster images into made-up shapes known as “paths.” Illustrator comes with a set of drawing object presets that quickly convert your image.

Related Post: How to Trace an Image in illustrator?

High Fidelity Photo produces a vector image that is high detail and ideal for photos or complex artwork. It’s best used when you have a lot of clipping masks and bezier curves in your design.

The Low fidelity photo produces a vector image with less detail than the High fidelity photo, which is best used for logos or artwork with flat colors only.

Illustrator CC gives you three color modes: RGB, CMYK, and Grayscale. RGB mode outputs vectors with 255 different colors; CMYK mode uses 43 unique Pantone colors, and Grayscale uses just Black (Burnt Umber) and White.

If you’re looking to get more creative with your existing, or future projects then why not start using some of the wonderfully imaginative Illustrator options that can be found in the image menu.

On the right-hand side of any image, you will typically find tools like ‘shapes’ and ‘artistic effects’, but also additional items such as the ones below.

To start, click the Dropdown arrow next to Image Trace to select your Preset. We’ll be using Low Fidelity Photo for this example. Click on it to begin tracing.

Vectorize the Image with Image Trace

Once you push the button, the picture will be automatically reconstructed by the analytical system. This action may include several changes to your image, but overall, it should stay quite similar.

For example, the following is a good illustration of how the resulting image looks like after going through our Analytical system.

While much of the original details have been lost in the transformation process, we might expect to see a heightened detail in color shapers all over the newly reconstructed image without any pixelation due to zooming out. Zoomed out an analytically processed image may look pretty much like it did before Image after editing.

Fine-Tune Your Traced Image

To optimize color to work better in Illustrator, use the Color Styles panel. Click the Edit button to begin adding colors, then click individual colors to change their values.

Once the colors are what you want, click OK. To create a Style from your custom group of colors, choose Save Colors and Settings from the panel menu. Then select a location for your file and name it something descriptive.

Ungroup Colors

The shapes on your image have now been outlined, but in order to separate them, you’ll need to first expand your image by right-clicking on it and selecting the menu option labeled Expand.

This will allow you to view the composite shapes that make up the vectorized images. Each of these outlines is blue and should be right-clicked (or CTRL + left click on a PC).

Once selected, each shape should be extracted from this layer by selecting Ungroup from the list of options.

Edit Your Vector Image

Now that we’ve converted one of our images to a vector image, we can utilize our free range to edit the image. Start by deleting any shapes or size points you don’t need.

You can select entire groups of shapes by selecting one with your Direct Selection tool and then change their color by heading to Select > Same > Fill Color (A).

Then hit Backspace on your keyboard to delete them. If you want to modify or even add more colors that relate specifically to the picture, you can do that as well by selecting an entire layer using the Direct Selection tool.

Next, fill in any empty spaces that come up or options to extend the design using the Pen or Brush tools.

Save Your Image

Here’s the background image after it had been cleaned up and converted into a vector. The last step is saving the image as an SVG format file since this will ensure that it remains crisp and high quality even in long-form.

Upon completing your work in Illustrator (you can also do this through Photoshop if Illustrator isn’t available), head to File > Save As > Save For Web. In the following window, type in a name for your design and select SVG as the image format from the drop-down menu beside ‘Save as Type’.

Conclusion

Vectorization is the process of creating graphics that are composed of lines and curves rather than pixels. Vector graphics are scalable, which allows them to be displayed at any size or resolution without losing quality.

This is an important aspect to consider when designing logos or images that will be used in a wide range of places. We will discuss the guide that helps you to understand that how to vectorize an image in illustrator.

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