help please with taking an image and converting with illustrator

[louisa tuohy]

Hi
Can anyone give me the steps from importing an image either in jpeg or bitmap into illustrator and converting it to use with the laser?
Many thanks
Louisa

[John Noell]

Do you mean how to vectorize/trace the jpeg/bitmap? I ask because you can of course laser a bitmap onto a substrate. If you need vectors you need to use the trace function. Is that what you mean?

[louisa tuohy]

yes John yes please i need to know how to vectorize / trace as i am just new to illustrator. can you help please?

[Frank barry]

coreldraw might be the best option

[George D Gabert]

The only way in Ilustrator is to put your original picture on a layer and manually trace on a second layer. Wen you print you turn off the original layer.

GDG

[Scott Alberts]

There is a trace function in Illustrator. First use file/place to put in the jpg, then goto edit/live trace. Hope that helps.

[Doug Griffith]

Illustrator has had trace functions for quite some time now. Look under Object:Live Trace.

[David Fairfield]

I use an antique version of Adobe so no live trace. But there are some websites that offer conversions from jpg to vector, you can get a free trial.

Also you may not really need to convert a .jpg to a vector graphic. I've done it but it wasn't really necessary. I have often converted .ai files to .jpg in order to reduce the file size. It engraves the same.

Dave

[Kevin Groenke]

Hey Louisa, there are tons of great tutorials for illustrator and about any other software out there. Google or YouTube what you're after and chances good somebody will already have done it. Probably more efficient and effective than asking here as it is a fairly complex process to describe in written form.

http://bit.ly/YHH5Mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8fw8sKgwNU

good luck,
-

[Scott Shepherd]

Also, if it's just an image, you don't need to "do" anything. Just hit the print button and roll on. You don't have to convert bitmaps to vector in Illustrator to engrave them. You can print directly. Now, if you are talking about cutting around the edges, that's different, but you can certainly print bitmaps (photos) from Illustrator all day long, as far as I know.

[Donna Klinton]

Hi there
For me ,i usually import image or convert image using a third party image processing tool.It supports to convert bitmap or jpeg image effectively.
There are many image program which supports to do that.You can aslo have a try.Most of the program offer a free trial package for new users.
That helps a lot.

[Jason Hilton]

There is a new tool in illustrator called Image Trace that is very effective at creating vector versions of jpgs. PM me and I'll run a sample conversion for you.