How to Vectorize an Image In Illustrator?

Illustrator is an application made by Adobe that is used to create vector images. Because vector images are the native format, vectorizing images within Illustrator is fairly straightforward. You’ll be using the Live Trace functions to create paths.

  1. Open the image in Illustrator and make sure it’s selected.  
  2. Navigate to the “Live Trace” option on the control panel. Click the “Tracing Presets and Options” menu icon next to it.
  3. Browse the existing preset options and select one to vectorize the image. For example, selecting “16 Colors” will vectorize the image in 16 separate colors.
  4. In order to create a separate path for each color click “Expand” under the options menu.
  5. To customize the settings for each path, navigate to the “Tracing Presets and Options” menu and click “Tracing Options.” From here you can edit settings such as “Mode,” “Blur” and “Threshold.”
  6. Click “Preview” to view the resulting vector images. Using this tool you can modify the paths as needed and experiment with the settings before saving the image.

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