Re: FLASH: OT: Tracing Bitmaps

[John Dowdell]

>> Is anyone aware of a good raster to vector conversion program.

>> Flash's tracing isn't quite cutting it for this one.

>

> adobe streamline


I'm not sure why Adobe's old standalone product comes up so often in these

recommendations... when you try its output you'll usually see that it has

too many curves and nodes for efficient web delivery. It's designed for

print, where lots of little points don't matter. In web delivery, you're

really seeking smooth, efficient curves. The tracing in Macromedia Flash is

actually quite effective here.


In all pixel-to-curve tracings, the key secret is "try more than once".

Make a few tracings, at different settings, so you can compare which gives

you the best appearance-to-filesize ratio.


(For the frequent "how can I automate tracing?" then the usual reply is "if

it takes too long to create, it usually takes too long to download too"...

people often think they can batch-trace a video file to make it faster for

the web, for instance.)


jd






John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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