Need help turning a two-tone map jpeg into an illustration 1

[tcsillustrator]

Hi - I have a map that was scanned at a decent resolution, but it's not good enough for my purposes, so I have to recreate it (and change the background color while I'm at it). The background is blue (but you can see all the dots from the printing), and the roads are white.

Can anyone tell me the easiest way to do recreate a map like this in illustrator without having to draw all the roads or shapes between them (i.e. land)?

I'm an illustrator novice, and don't really know where to start. I tried this "live trace", but that didn't seem to be what I need.

For clarification purposes, I've put a link to a section of the map that I need to recreate.

Thanks to whoever can help me!

 

[tcsillustrator]

Woops -

My picture attachment didn't work. Try this link...

 

[apepp]

...you will get better results redrawing, that is the "easiest" method and most editable method in the long run and ultimately better quality too...

...live trace is a good tool, but it does take experimenting with and is dependant on the source image you have...

...if you don't want to redraw, then hire someone that will help you out...

...the white roads are sat on top of a background color, so you don't draw the shapes that create the land between the roads, the white roads define those areas...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...your only other option without drawing it is to source the image used for the actual print and gain the rights to use it, this will likely incur a cost as well...

andrew

 

[tcsillustrator]

Thanks

 

[phoeniceus]

Don't know whether you've already resolved your problem, but you might want to look into Vector Magic (

http://vectormagic.com/home).

It's an online resource that was developed at Stanford University, that allows you to upload raster art and have it vectorized. I've used it in similar situations to the one you've described.

It isn't free, but it is pretty cheap. The tokens you buy are reasonably priced and it's a very capable tool. I don't use it that often, but in some situations it's absolutely indispensable. The beauty of it is that you can fiddle with the vectorizing settings as much as you want until you get the optimal results, because you only pay when you want to download EPS or SWF output.