Converting Full Color Raster to Vector...

The only way I know for converting to vector is this Raster to Vector: Convert JPG, BMP, and More to Vector

and I believe it's the easiest one

Thanks for the help everyone, sorry I was so short in my answers, it had been a rough day.

We decided to send the graphic out, as no matter what we did, short of recreate the art, we couldn't get the colors to translate for printing.

Before anyone says "you don't need to use vector for screen printing"

Screen printing does not necessitate vector-based graphics.

....yes...we do. We run Corel X4 on our transparency machine, so I need to convert to vector, and keep the halftones fine, as well as keep the pantone color book.

Explain better. What does this mean? I read it as:

We run Corel X4 on our transparency machine

You print separations on transparency film from Corel DRAW X4. Has no bearing on the necessity of raster vs. vector artwork.

I need to...keep the halftones fine

Keep the halftones "fine"?  As opposed to course? (Keep the halftone frequency high?). Has no bearing on the necessity of raster vs. vector artwork. The halftoning of the seps is a printer function.

I need to...keep the pantone color book

What color mode and format is the raster image you are tracing? You're not normally going to automatically get Pantone-specific spot color separations when auto-tracing an RGB or CMYK raster image. You can:

• Pre-define a set of spot colors for the auto-trace routine to use.
• Auto-trace an RGB or CMYK raster image, then select the resulting objects of a particluar fill color and re-apply a spot color swatch afterwards.
• Auto-trace an RGB or CMYK raster image, then run a color-replacement routine to swap out the colors to the nearest matching swatches of a pre-defined set.

So in order to recreate the gradient, I would have to redraw the lettering, and physically recreate the gradient in Illustrator?

The auto-trace is not going to automatically figure out how to make grad-filled objects out of what merely looks to you like a grad. Each pixel has a fixed color value; pixels don't graduate. All an auto-trace routine does is abide by a color-variance tolerance by which it treats a certain range of adjacent colors as if they are the same, and then tries to draw a path around them.

None of the above dictates a necessity for vector paths for screen printing. The original image could be processed into spot color channels entirely in Photoshop, and printed as spot-color seps. The result would be more accurate to the original than an autotrace, and the halftone frequency/quality would still be a printing function (or could alternatively be made into lineart in the spot color seps).

JET

Kevin,

You may use Select>Same>Fill Color to change the solid colours to the desired ones rather easily, and you may recreate the gradient (red to yellow). The greyish colour transitions may be dealt with in other ways if needed, such as blends and gradient meshes.