The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **J.M. Hunter** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:07 pm

Photoshop or illustrator?

I scanned it at 600dpi and saved it as a tif in photoshop. Then I went and opened it up in Illustrator. Tried the pen tool then shit got wonky.

So how do I "hand trace" a logo or something I drew where I actually have more control instead of dealing with a pen tool in Illustrator where it just sorta slices pieces and doesn't listen to me no matter how much I Yell at the screen?

Thoughts? Answers? Witty remarks?

by **Royal Nonesuch** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:17 pm

I always used to use the pen. It takes some practice. Make sure you don't have a fill (in Illustrator), just a stroke.

by **SuperginraiX** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:23 pm

I'd also make sure you lock your pic in the background so you don't have to worry about selecting it. It's been a while but the pen tool is the way to go if I'm remembering correctly.

by **sdsichero** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:45 pm

SuperginraiX wrote:I'd also make sure you lock your pic in the background so you don't have to worry about selecting it. It's been a while but the pen tool is the way to go if I'm remembering correctly.

Yeah throw it in the background (grayscales it usually) then trace over that. Depending on the logo, you can use the pen or use shapes & combinations to redo the logo.

by **J.M. Hunter** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:49 am

I'll have to give it another try then. I thought Jude was joking when he said use the pen tool, it started slicing away my fucking logo. Unwieldy piece of fucking hammerfuck tool. :smt011

I did just open up my tif image in Illustrator and tried to go for it with the pen tool.

So you're saying I need to prep my area some how?

by **sdsichero** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:02 am

J.M. Hunter wrote:I'll have to give it another try then. I thought Jude was joking when he said use the pen tool, it started slicing away my fucking logo. Unwieldy piece of fucking hammerfuck tool.

I did just open up my tif image in Illustrator and tried to go for it with the pen tool.

So you're saying I need to prep my area some how?

Were you using the pen tool or the trace tool?

The pen tool is all manual, you need to trace the image like you would if it was tracing paper over an image. The trace tool does it automatically if you select the area and will give you some variable results.

by **J.M. Hunter** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:07 am

sdsichero wrote:
Were you using the pen tool or the trace tool?

The pen tool is all manual, you need to trace the image like you would if it was tracing paper over an image. The trace tool does it automatically if you select the area and will give you some variable results.

Ok, I was using the pen tool. I'll look for the trace tool next time, thanks.

by **S.F. Jude Terror** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:15 am

The trace tool sucks, you're better off manually tracing it with the pen tool. Turn off the fill or switch the view to outline from preview so you don't have a fill covering up the logo as you trace it. But it's definitely the way to go. Look for a tutorial online, once you figure out how to use it, it's really easy if you take your time. And then you have a perfect, scalable vector graphic of your logo which you can use for all sorts of purposes.

by **J.M. Hunter** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:23 am

Jude Terror wrote:The trace tool sucks, you're better off manually tracing it with the pen tool. Turn off the fill or switch the view to outline from preview so you don't have a fill covering up the logo as you trace it. But it's definitely the way to go. Look for a tutorial online, once you figure out how to use it, it's really easy if you take your time. And then you have a perfect, scalable vector graphic of your logo which you can use for all sorts of purposes.

I'm willing to try it.