Turn a solid image into just an outline?

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
March 19, 2014
2 replies
108745 views

Hello, I have a simple question that is driving me crazy. I have a guitar pick jpeg that is a black pen line filled with white I am using for a design. I placed the pick image into Ai and now can't figure out how to change it. I just want to select the image, and transform it into just an outline of the pick, all transparent everywhere except the outline shape of the pick. Almost the same as if I had drawn the pick with the pen tool, but I don't want to have to draw it. My skills in that are beginner and not very good to say the least.

Thanks

How to

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Melbatoast68 wrote:
but I don't want to have to draw it.

A guitar pick is a fine lesson for a start. You'll have to learn the pen tool anyway. Why don't you start now?

M

Melbatoast68Author

Participating Frequently

I've actually decided to do a state instead of a guitar pick, so it's not possible to use the pen tool. Pus, like I said, I just want illustrator to do it for me. I don't have time to learn it right now. I just want to illustrator to outline the image and make the rest of the image transparent. Is that possible or not? I've seen it done with text, where you can just press a few buttons and then the text is no longer solid, but just the outline of the words. Is there a way to do that with an image? Drawing the image is not an option.

Thanks

S

sheridantanner36600

Participant

The image trace thing eventually worked, but I have NO idea what the answers with ignore white and set to stroke not fill mean or where they are in the tools. I did not see that ANYWHERE. I just used the image trace, but then had to fumble my way through all the options until it finally did what I wanted and made it into an outline with anchor points all over the pick or the state. So thank you for all your help even though I ended up finding it on my own and it was not like how people described. But none the less, you put me on to the right path and I got it done and can finish this logo for my friend now. It will be really nice now and help my friend out a ton. So thanks everyone.

TLDR all previous comments, and I realize your problem has long been figured out and abandoned, but in the future... if you have the imported image selected in Adobe Illustrator (I'm using CC 2017, I'm not sure if this is true across all versions), then navigate to the "Object" menu drop-down at the top, hover over "Image Trace," and select "Make and Expand." On the surface, this looks like the white background is still glued to the traced image, but actually they're separate and just grouped together. With the image selected now, if you hit Ctrl+Shift+G, that should ungroup the separate pieces and you can manipulate or delete the white bit to your heart's content.

Alternatively, you can double click on the white part of the image while the image is still grouped and this allows you to edit the individual pieces while operating *within* the group. When you're finished making your changes, just double click anywhere outside of the grouped pieces and you'll exit that state/level, letting you treat the individual pieces as a group again.

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

Look at Object>Image Trace.

M

Melbatoast68Author

Participating Frequently

I just do that and all of a sudden it will be an outlined image with no fill and be transparent everywhere except the line of the pick??? Because I think I already saw that option somewhere and tried it and all it did was make the image lines on the pick get smoother, but didn't make the white fill in the middle go away and transparent. If that IS the way to do this, can you please give more detailed instructions as I am a beginner to Ai.

Thank you so much

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