Turning Jpegs into .ai files 1

[LACPrecious]

I have a drawing that someone emailed me. I was able to open the jpeg in illustrator. Can someone tell me how I can turn that into an .ai file so I can manipulate it? I don't have to redraw it, do I?

 

[jmgalvin]

Once it's open in ILL just save and select AI as format. Remember that it's still going to be rasterized because the jpeg was a raster.

If the thing is not too complicated, it's sometimes better to export paths to Ill from Photoshop.

 

[LACPrecious]

I did that, but it still won't let me select individual parts of the drawing and change the color, etc. To get it in Illustrator I just copied and pasted. Is there another way to open the document in Illustrator? I will try photoshop in the meantime.

 

[jmgalvin]

To select by color, you can try double clicking the magic wand an make sure the proper attributes are checked to pick up various things.

In all honesty, I'd use PS to make changes to jpegs. It's just easier. If you want, you might try opening in PS and saving as EPS. That format will easily get it into ILL. But it'll still be rasterized.

 

[LACPrecious]

Ok I did that. What I'm getting is the just picture. When I click on it there is the bounding block around the whole thing. I've saved as an eps in photoshop and exported to Illustrator, but there is no change. I don't know how to use photoshop at all so illustrator will be the easiest for me. Is it possible that I'm going something wrong when I copied and pasted the jpg in illustrator? If it tell you anything more, the jpg was emails to me in a word doc. That is where I copied and pasted from originally.

 

[barehug]

Unless the image is very simple(easily traceable - block colours etc), Adobe Streamline would probably be better to convert your image (it will need to be a PSD or Tiff) to a vector that you can edit in Illustrator.

Illustrator CS2 is supposed to have much better raster/vector conversion than previous versions. As it stands, Illustrator has very limited conversion tools.

PS: I always find, to get the original image embedded in a Word Doc; try exporting the Doc as a webpage. The original image and the resized image will be in the associted 'files' folder.

Moe: It could have been a real ugly situation, but luckily I managed to shoot him in the spine.

 

[LACPrecious]

Thank you all for your help, however I don't really understand what you are telling me to do. Can you tell me where in the manual I can read about this? Or at least what to look up in the index or what section to start in? I am using Illustrator 9.

Again, thank you all so much.

 

[itchybug]

As Mr. Ed suggested on the Adobe forum, you could of course sketch it and then scan it into your computer. Pbbbbbtt!!

Bert Philippus

http://www.itchybug.com

http://www.amenpackaging.com

 

[tperkins]

Have you tried Adobe Streamline? That will vector the picture where you can select different colors. But it won't be an exact replica of the jpg

Tony Perkins

 

[Eggles]

LACPrecious

I think you are missing the point. Just because you can open the JPG in Illustrator doesn't mean it magically becomes an editable vectorised graphic.

>> I don't have to redraw it, do I?<<

Probably yes - but you CAN use Photoshop to help, depending on what is in the image.

What the others are suggesting is to open the JPG in Photoshop, then use whatever tools you need to create selections of each differnt coloured area. Once you have made the first selection, go to the PAths palette and create a path from the selection. You can add new selections to this path. When all your selected areas have been saved a paths, export the paths to Ilustrator. This ceates an AI file which can then be opened in AI. However, once opened you will not see anything because there is no stroke on the paths. Select all and add a stroke. You can also remove the crop marks that come in automatically using this method. You may need to clean up the paths in Illustrator so that you can then colour the various regions they enclose. It's not an easy job if the original image consists of many components and is almost impossible if the original JPG was a photo.

But there really isn't any quick and easy way of converting a raster JPG into a vector file.

 

[LACPrecious]

Thank you for your help. One question, what do you mean by "using tools to create selections"?

 

[Eggles]

Photoshop has a number of different tools to help you select part(s) of an image. There is the magic wand, the magnetic lasso and the best one - the Pen Tool (which if you are familiar with AI, works in a simlar way). Which tool you use is determined by how well separated colours are in the image, how clean and sharp the edges of the selection must be and lots of other factors.