Bitmap to vector conversion - preparation and expectations

[pn78204181]

I have some bitmap art in the form of TIFF's that I had prepared for silkscreening onto some garmets.   But the artist who was going to do that is now defunct.   So in looking for someone else I found a local company who will do it for me, but they want it as vector art in Adobe Illustrator.  (NB - they want vector art, not bitmap art embedded in vector art)

The file images are just 4 solid colors - no shading or gradations (after all, they were for a silkscreen project).  I have scant experience with Illustrator -  I have Illustrator via Adobe Creative Cloud and I have CC for Premiere Pro and Photoshop, so I seldom use vector art for anything.

How should this be done, is there anything I need to do to prepare the TIF files first, and what results should I expect?

Thanks in advance.

PS - the advice online is to use Windows > Image Trace.   But when I do that all the Image Trace options are grayed-out.

[Doug A Roberts]

If your images are very detailed, you might need to lower your expectations.

If you require high fidelity to the original TIFF, it might be easier to find a printer who is willing to work with your original files (as there is nothing specifically precluding someone working with TIFFs for silkscreening except the software choices they may have made).

When you try to use the image trace options, have you selected the placed image in your document first?

[pn78204181]

Keep in mind this is for silk-screening, so the level of detail is very low.  (it's a parody of the poster for the 1960's movie Endless Summer, if that gives you an idea)   Also it's not "in" a document; it is the document, I just opened up the TIFF in Illustrator.   Is there a file-size restriction?   The TIFF is 132 MB.

[Doug A Roberts · Accepted solution]

The image itself exists as an object in an Illustrator document whether you opened it directly or not, and needs to be selected for image trace options to become available.