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S
studio_us
Participant
January 28, 2017
Question

Illustrator Live Trace Looking Pixelated

  • January 28, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1737 views

Why is my image trace almost look like it only consists of 45 and 90 degree angles? I have been trying to image trace some ink marks I made and they are tracing very strange and almost pixelated. My scanned image is 5100 x 3500 @ 300ppi. And I have the snap curves to lines box UNCHECKED, although it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference in the result whether its checked or not. Help!

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2 replies

S
shiftBKperspectives
Known Participant
June 16, 2017

I have the same problem. See my attached image. I got it to work the first time when I made some line art with Image Trace, but not the second time or any subsequent times - using the same original. I tried starting with different resolutions of the original image. I also adjusted the path fitting and it didn't give enough detail like the middle one. It was like I got it to work once, but never again.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 16, 2017

For Illustrator a pixel image is a pile of pixels. Tracing it exactly would mean to trace each and every pixel. But that won't give smooth paths, so you think it's ugly. Illustrator knows nothing about what you like. It only knows what is exact.

On top of that there are real issues with black and white images. Image trace is just not made for that type of black and white detailed images.

Michael Riordan
Michael Riordan
Inspiring
January 28, 2017

Did you try tweaking the advanced settings? You might set the path fitting and corner emphasis to  low values. Try that, let us know how it comes out.

S
studio_usAuthor
Participant
January 31, 2017

Hi Michael! Thanks for the advice, I did try changing the advanced settings all around and that just seemed only make my lines very smooth and less detailed which isn't exactly what I wanted. I ended up just scanning in my image at an absurdly high resolution and that seemed to work a bit better.

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