Is a.i. outline the same thing as a vector image?

[Brendina]

Hi! I recently started working as a professional illustrator. But I'm also kind of learning as I go… I just had a client request that the Procreate images I've done be converted to "a.i. outline" files. 
I've been doing some research on what that means and it seems like a.i. outline is mostly applied to text. Is an image "a.i. outline" really just a vector image?

thank you in advance for any answers!

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

It sounds like the client is asking for the files to be Illustrator line art (vector) files. The files created in Procreate are raster files. Converting those files to vector is not actually a simple matter. Illustrator does have an Image trace feature that will make line art out of raster images but the results of it do not generally show great fidelity with the original. Also the conversions can be difficult to edit especially for someone that is not very familiar with Illustrator. You could also use your Procreate image as a template and manually use Illustrator's drawing tools to manually recreate the art. I found a link that explores ways to do what you need (although the author of the article seems to have a higher opinion of Image Trace than I've experienced) you can check it out at: https://makerlex.com/convert-procreate-artwork-to-vector-with-illustrator/. 

[Anubhav Majumder]

Hello @Brendina,

Thanks for reaching out. As suggested by Bill, the raster images from Procreate need to converted to vectors using Illustrator. Depending on the project's complexity, it may not be straightforward, but you may try the suggestions shared in this tutorial and check if it helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyLSZIbXI0g.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav