Image Trace provides different results on same image?

[TSTLOFT]

I am trying to figure out whether this is correct or not.

I have a large 23X12" @Deleted User image that I want to bring into Illustrator to Live Trace.

To get my settings right, I first cropped a section of the image and brought that in  - to speed up previews while I fine tune the setting.

Looks good, so I saved a preset. Time to bring in the entire image.

What I did not realize is that Live Trace has different quality results on the full image, much looser path fitting, less natural look.

I am using the same preset, same scale of image - it's just the full non-cropped image.

I tried twice and confirm that the results are different.

Is this proper behavior for Live Trace. I always assumed the results were the same, it would just take longer on a larger image area.

Does the math change based on how many paths it needs to trace overall?

Can anyone confirm? What if I had to batch a group of images that are different size, but I wanted a uniform look?

And perhaps any suggestion? I am thinking of cutting the image up and trying to piece it back together.

Version 2017.1.0 PC Win7

Many thanks

[Monika Gause]

TSTLOFT  schrieb

And perhaps any suggestion? I am thinking of cutting the image up and trying to piece it back together.

That's usually what people do in your case.

[TSTLOFT]

Thanks for that, Monika.

That suggestion is still faster than my other options. I will give it a shot!

[@mj]

Live Trace does quite well at lower resolutions and smaller dimensions.

You might want to try that too.

It tends to choke a little with higher res and sizes.

HTH

[TSTLOFT]

Master Mo, With this particular image, I am trying to retain as much detail as possible.

I have found, in the past that the more I scale down the image (or lower resolution) for Image Trace, the more it has that familiar ‘Illy Vector’ appearance, of course that depends on the type of image.

I will try that next, however – and compare the results. Anything is better than hand drawing this thing !

Thanks again.

[@mj]

It sounds counter-intuitiv right?

I found that with too high a res, Ai tries to fiddle with almost every pixel giving a poorer result than at a lower res. Within reason of course.

Please let us know how it goes.

[TSTLOFT]

Master Mo,

I have just now tried scaling the image to 50%. There is a little compromise, but it’s not bad at all – I do think the detail is better with a full scale cropped image vs a scaled whole image. Again, based on the individual image and desired results, of course.

I may save a preset for 50% scaled images, because I had to fiddle with the settings a bit more. But I can see this option working in some cases (like a deadline in 1 hour!)

I will say though, provided that you are carefully following the guides in photoshop, reimporting the cropped images back in works very well, and the splices are impeccable.

I should also add that this is an approximately 60 color image (albeit still a graphically flat color image), so I understand I am asking a lot of Illustrator right now!

I suppose the best test would be to try all scenarios with fonts, and compare the results.