AI: How can I smoothen gradient after or when applying Image Trace?

happy to hear that worked out.. yes, the photoshop effect do bring up file size. by you can rasterize, i believe, to bring down the size and make a .pdf,

Feedback: I went for using Photoshop, increasing the size of the image and using blur. it was much easier than setting up a mesh as the overall image is quite complex. Many thanks to everyone for your advise.

Technically I understand there is difference between a path and a mesh, but then it looks like a mesh. -)

Thanks to all for the responses. In the meantime I wondered whether there is a way to transform the mesh created by Trace Image to the gradient mesh.

gaussian blur might be a quick wait to get you where you want to be.  apply it to individual shapes and play around with it. Keep in mind that effect is "photoshop" effect technically. So maybe you might want to scale your artwork at the finished size first.

I couldn't resist using this as my "morning tuneup" in AI. This is one roadmap for creating a mesh, as Monika suggested. With a mesh vector selected and the eyedropper tool active, you can "Shift-click" to sample a color from your image directly to the selected vector point. Others may have additional suggestions.

Image Trace is not able to output gradients. No autotrace tool on the market can do that.

Moreover: in order to get that result as a vector, you would need a gradient mesh. So all you can do is delete the shapes that have been created there and create a gradient mesh instead.