Technique to close in the negative space in an image trace result

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
April 7, 2019
2 replies
3551 views

I'm sure this question has been answered and likely in the documentation; but I guess I don't know the proper terms to use in describing my question.

I used Image Trace on an isolated photo of a white helmet on a transparent background. I placed the image on an artboard in Adobe and then applied a 9 color image trace.

The bright part of the helmet extended to teh edge of the helmet in the original and then the background was transparent.

Image Trace seems to have equated the bright area to be equal to white and since there was no surrounding darker shade or color created an unclosed area that has no fill. This is the area I am calling the "Negative Space".

The negative space is rather large within the helmet (because it is a white helmet) and when the rendered image trace SVG is placed on a dark background, the negative space is void and therefore teh background color shows through the helmet.

Newbie me tried to join to anchor points but received an error. I added an object to block the opening but that didn't close the Negative Space.

Any suggestions for a newbie?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Chris,

What happens if you untick Ignore White in the Live Trace settings, then try to trace again?

A

AIMSctoAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks Jacob. I still get an unclosed shape when the "Ignore White" setting is turned on (checked) and therefore no fill for that space. Here is the result:

I'm going to try the Overlapping setting to see if that helps.

Cactus Cowboy

Inspiring

It pains me deeply to even contemplate this much less mention it but when it comes to image trace—Inkscape beats the pants off of Illustrator and leaves it eating it's dust. For instance, it cleans the image up with amazing accuracy removing ninety percent artifacts, it simplifies large areas of same color segments into layers in stacking order and it does all this with one tenth the adjustment controls.

I'm positively certain that it comes from the algorithm they use in their trace code. Come on Adobe, you've created the best software this side of the universe but bringing out a new feature revolutionary though it may be doesn't mean ignoring the old features we artists use day in and day out. You have to go back and re-read the mega lines of code and tweak and implement new ideas that streamline and update those tools. You just have too!