image trace in illustrator greyed out

[harrisbeeman1]

Everything on image trace is greyed out.  Preset, View, Mode, Palette, Threshold (and everything in the advanced section too.)  I think I hit a button that caused this, but now not sure what to do?

[Srishti Bali]

Hi semibold,

Please make sure if the image is selected, this generally happens when the image is not selected.

Also,  Could you please confirm if it is happening with other files as well?

If yes, please reset Illustrator preferences to defaults , for details click here How to set preferences in Illustrator

If it still does not help we would require some more details like

Operating system (Exact version of windows or MAC)

Exact version of Illustrator

Were the files are saved (Both illustrator and place image)

Regards

Srishti

[barbara_a · Accepted solution]

As srisht said, it may be that the image is not selected.

Other things to check:

• Is what you are trying to trace actually an image? If it is vector, Image Trace will be grayed out.
• Try creating a new Illustrator file. Then choose File > Place. Navigate to the image you want to trace and place it into your Illustrator file. When it is selected, is Image Trace still grayed out?

[kenb47]

I took a photo using adobe capture and saved it as a pdf. (and emailed it to another working location).

I then opened it in AI-CC (it looked like a vector but selected like a pixel image).

Image trace was greyed out.

I then 'Placed' the image/vector into a newly created AI-CC doc., and it acted more like a pixel file.

Image Trace was now available.

Thanks

[kimmarla]

This just happened to me, too, and I realized the image had a clipping path applied. I released that and trace worked as expected.

[MylesGelbach]

Having the same issue, this was my problem.

Thank you Saved me some time for sure.

[PeterRychlik]

How do i detect/fix that?

[Monika Gause]

peterrychlik  schrieb

How do i detect/fix that?

Fix what?

What do you want to detect?

Please descrobe your issue.

[Anthony Rubano]

Kimmarla: This just happened to me, too, and I realized the image had a clipping path applied. I released that and trace worked as expected.

PeterRychlik: How do i detect/fix that?

Clearly he's asking how someone would know if they had a clipping path applied, and if so, how to release the trace.

What are you not understanding?

[Kellie21926451aemv]

You can check your layers panel for clipping paths and delete them. 

[SundayGladiator]

Bingo.

I thought I lost my mind. Why was my image trace was greyed out?!

Those pesky clipping masks. Thank you for this!

[lnl091]

Thank you for posting this solution! I had mistakenly clicked to "embed" my image, saved the document and closed it. When I opened it again I had lost all options to image trace. Illustrator had created a clipping path so once I ungrouped the image and released the clipping mask I was able to image trace

[CreativeLeaDesign]

Thanks Barbabra Ash. I created a screenshot of the "image" created a new Illustrator document, and that then recognised it as an image! I'm tracing away now 🙂

[yichinpeh]

I applied a pixelate filter to a shape and I can't trace it. Is there a better way than screenshotting it?

[Ton Frederiks]

Object > Expand Appearance

[Keaton22551554nahp]

Also the trace option will be greyed-out when in preview mode, so exit preview mode to trace image. 

[Brian242056968mdg]

It must be an ai file, not eps.

[Scrambledeggs]

The issue may be the image itself. I tried copying a raster image from Powerpoint and pasting it into Illustrator. All Object > Image trace options were greyed out. If you have a raster image for which you don't have the original source, try pasting it into Photoshop and exporting it. Then placing the exported image into Illustrator. This worked for me and I was able to trace the image.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

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@Scrambledeggs  schrieb:

The issue may be the image itself. I tried copying a raster image from Powerpoint and pasting it into Illustrator. All Object > Image trace options were greyed out. If you have a raster image for which you don't have the original source, try pasting it into Photoshop and exporting it. Then placing the exported image into Illustrator. This worked for me and I was able to trace the image.

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Images pasted from somewhere can be inside clipping masks. Just release them.

[dBlueFalconEdits]

The solution for me (because I had the same issue) was to "Flatten Transparency" then the Image Trace window was not greyed out anymore. Hope this helps someone!