Tracing Illustrator

Tracing in Adobe Illustrator
Project: Storage Board

This is a tutorial of the ‘tracing’ option in Adobe Illustrator. The option comes in handy when you want to create a design which resembles the original image as much as possible. The created design can then be used for total different purposes then the original object.
I used the tracing option for the recreation of the working tools of the Amsterdam Fablab in Illustrator.

The first step is to create an image of the subject by a 90˚ angle. This is to create a top view which you will place in Illustrator. I took a picture from the storage board with all the tools on it, in the final order

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Now you want to create as much contrast as possible, so it will be easier for Illustrator to trace the outlines of your piece. A good way to do this is to make the picture in black & white, and then edit the contrast further in Photoshop. Here is the result.

Next you put the image in Illustrator by selecting ‘place’ under ‘file’. Notice that the image should be sized up so that it fits the real sizes.  In my case I measured up the storage board and adjusted the height and width in Illustrator.

Now the tracing can begin. Go to ‘Object’ => ‘Live Trace’ => ‘Tracing Options’. Here u can decide the details about your trace. For the storage board I wanted the outline of all the pieces  as clear as possible. It is probably best to try out a couple of traces before you decide which one works the best for your idea. For the storage board I selected ‘Comic Art’.

Heres the result. Next you select expand and you have the path of the image.

Change the colours so u can see the outlines. Notice that the trace is not perfect and you have to edit some of the gaps (these were created by the metal parts of the tools). I filled it up by using the pentool. The nice thing about the trace is that the outlines are indicating a certain path of the object. Therefore you can easily fill in the gaps and join the lines together.

Finally I took the whole image and put it trough the Vinyl cutter in the Fablab. Now the storage board looks very nice and you can instantly tell when a tool is missing!

This was my ‘Trace’ option tutorial in Illustrator. I hope that it will come in handy for you as it did for me.