Tracing artwork to convert to a vector, help needed please?

[Chris Wilson]

Corel traces most things well if it’s a decent quality.

However anything that’s rubbish we send off to unique art services. £6 a logo. Back within 24 hours. Only thing I find is there colours are sometimes off but easy fix.

We bill this back to the customer at a higher rate. Unless it’s a big job, couple of vans booked in or something then I can live with £6 to get the job.

Tbh we probably use them the most when getting files from “graphic designers” that I’ve never heard of. Vector packs that’s are just Low res photoshop JPEG’s saved as a eps 😂

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by  Chris Wilson.

[Martyn Heath]

I have always drawn them up in illustrator, a mixture of the trace tool and hand work. If its the bad i normally just tell them to come back when they have a decent pdf. Chris what online firm do you use? sounds like a no brainer

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Martin,

They are called unique art services. Not sure what forum rules are with email address. I’ll try dropping you a PM.

[Simon Worrall]

I trace it in Illustrator, and I charge for the service – unless the job is highly profitable and I dont want to rock the boat. It often takes longer to explain the service than it takes to just do the job.

[Steve Morgan]

Some years ago, when I was still working. I did a lot of work re-creating stickers for old racing cars and frequently the only references came from old magazine pictures. I used Signlab v8 and that included a pretty good vectorising application so having something that, although not perfect, started off the vectorising process was very very helpful. I must have spent hundreds of hours fiddling with logos trying to get them absolutely dead on and none of them charged because I loved doing it.

On reflection I would have had more time to do other work if I had found a trustworthy supplier to provide that service and of course it’s a cost with a mark-up to pass on to the client.

Steve

[Myles Brewer]

Hi Karen,

You could also try Vector Magic. You can just drag & drop your files onto their webpage & it will automatically convert it with a few adjustable settings available depending on the quality of the image & output. They also have a desktop version you can download for a fee with extra functions.

I generally use Flexi 19 which has great tracing features but occasionally if time is short Vector Magic can be handy & cheap.

[Gary Forbes]

I have had a few done here by vectorwise on uksignboards.com.
I asked for a vector service recommendation, tried them and got my file back the next day.

I just email to Chris for a quote. chris@uksignboards.com
Depends on how much is work is involved of course but from memory it’s.

£9.99
£14.99
£19.99

I looked around. Some cheap and some expensive, some from different countries which probably has time differences or language issues. I just thought for ten pounds here I thought what the hell!!

I hope this is OK for me to post this Chris/Rob?

[Phill Fenton]

Funnily enough I was just talking to an online company that do this sort of thing. Try artworkrework.com

[Hugh Potter]

I also use unique art services if it’s something I have neither time or inclination to do, from £6 for something fairly simply, to around £40 for a family crest that took some poor sod around 20hrs! I then charge the customer accordingly, generally £20 upward.