Adobe Illustrator Image Trace Tutorial For the Real World

While there are a couple dozen other tutorials out there that will walk you through every single detail of the Image trace panel I wanted to focus on the 2 most frequent uses I came across when working with clients.
We'll look at converting a color png graphic and a black and white logo. I'll also include a few tips and tricks along the way.
Let me know in the comments what you think about the new format.

[@Ricardosanchez0111]

Always jump straight to the tutorial, Great video amigo. Excelent voice you have there too, very clear and easy to understand.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for the kind words.

[@sfowler1017]

Oh my word. BEST tutorial on this I've ever seen. Thank you SO MUCH. I finally, finally got this to work for me the easy way. Glory hallelujah. Great work!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for the amazing comment! Happy you found my content helpful.

[@elodied.s3957]

Love the tips for image trace. Easy to understand and follow the instructions. I’ll definitely try it on my own now

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for watching and commenting! Hope you learned enough to tackle using it on your own!

[@lynncobb]

OMGosh! Thank you so much. I needed to trace my own logo to modify it slightly. I should looked you up yesterday instead of wasting hours trying to do it myself. This is a wonderful tool. I liked how you just jumped into the tutorial too :))

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Happy it was helpful! Thank you for watching & commenting.

[@robjollie]

It's the small details explained that I really appreciate. Thank you!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Always happy to hear my content is helpful! Thanks for the comment 🤘

[@KordTaylor]

👏Thank you for your great video. It was super helpful.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for letting me know!

[@luckystar03]

Hi @mikepickett thank you for this tutorial. I was looking how to be proficient with the image tracing tool, and I found your tutorial very useful. Thank you for your video.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for letting me know, always happy to hear when my content is useful.

[@50pointsomethin]

image trace> expand> change olour

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Appreciate your input, if you’d care to expand it might help when I update this video later this year for the newest version of Illustrator.

[@JohnRineyIII]

Watched this video just to find out that you had to press "Expand" of all things to actually vectorize. Adobe is so ridiculously obtuse :) Thank you!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Yup! Great software… mostly. Happy you found a solution!

[@TuneMeIn]

Your video is honestly amazing and you deserve way more recognition! I've been playing around with image trace for a while and the video has definitely helped me build a better understanding of how to use it. Thanks heaps 😉

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Truly appreciated! If you could let 10 to 20 thousand of your closest friends know that would be great 😉 Just kidding, happy you found it helpful!

[@TuneMeIn]

@@MikePickettDesignCo Haha, that many friends would be quite exhausting come to think of it 😄

[@marinewalkers9400]

@@MikePickettDesignCo Hi. Can you explain how to export them as SVG to import into Clip Studio Paint?

[@jackkyle5457]

Thank you I have looked for just this tutorial. Well done.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Glad it was helpful!

[@majkimajk81]

It was my first lesson. Thank you brother

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

You’re welcome! New content coming in the New Year.

[@NalaandDes]

Wow. Supacolor team sent me here. I’ve watched numerous of videos. Your information is so detailed about image tracing

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Always happy to hear when my content is both being shared and being helpful! 🤘

[@hingwk13]

thanks! great teaching!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[@celocelocelocelo]

Great video, helped a lot. thank you!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Always happy to hear when my content can help!

[@taniaheyes4908]

I am constantly having to use image trace for logos I can't locate as vectors. Even when I get a decent resolution the trace looks terrible. I'm amazed you are able to get it so accurate!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

It’s all in the sliders and working them until you get it just right. Every trace is different.

[@ChasedRabbit]

Liked you jumping right in!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

I appreciate you being here!! More content coming soon 🤘

[@deemack4457]

Great stuff! The only video I came across that made it simple! Thanks! New Sub!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you! Always happy to hear when my content has been helpful!

[@alexvaganova2175]

Awesome tutorial! Thank you so much!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thanks Alex! Glad it was helpful.

[@akshaykorlekar]

Thanks this was very helpful

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Glad it helped

[@kennethmeyernl]

I just subscribed to your channel. I have to create a complicated logo design, and i'm not a graphic designer 🤯. Tomorrow i will use this tutorial to help me out.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Hope it helps! A little advice, logos shouldn’t be complicated. Simple shapes are most memorable. Go look at the top logo design firms & designers and see what they’re creating.

[@cijis]

I like the new format

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thanks Christopher! I appreciate your feedback 🤘

[@marcelbednar8139]

Hello. Is it possible to reduce the number of nodes with a slider in Illustrator?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

There are a couple of options you’ll want to try: Object > Path > Simplify or Object > Path > Remove Anchor Points.

[@9seconds490]

Good good video. appreciate the insights as well

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you! Always happy to help and offer more than just the minimal amount of details without context.

[@KynzzJewelryCoOnEtsy]

You could do Joe Rogan vocal impersonations! Thanks for the video! It gave me exactly what I needed

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Your'e not the first person to tell me the Joe Rogan suggestion 🤣 Happy to hear the video helped!

[@Bones1220]

This is so helpful thank you!!!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Always happy to hear when my content helps!!

[@MistyBlueJudah]

Thx for a gr8 video. I got vector points but my box never went away. Any idea why?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Hard to say without seeing the file you were using… possibly you just need to ungroup and then just delete the box? If it’s a white box there is an option to ignore white that you could try checking.

[@RainRain19]

Thank you!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Happy it helped! Thank you for watching & commenting!

[@evelinrim5055]

Great tutorial, thank you! I am wondering, why sometimes Image Trace doesn't work out well? I get many customers who don't have vectorized logos, but I struggle to understand why some logos (usually more detailed) become blurry, letters become rounded/blended and doesnt trace well? Is it down to the png/jpeg resolution? Or is the problem with me not having enough skills to image trace it properly? I end up rebuilding their logo from scratch, is that common I wonder?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

This is actually pretty common, especially when working with a logo or image that is highly detailed. While experience with the tool can help a little, I find that if I have to spend more than 15 or 20 minutes playing around with settings, it’s best to just remake the file.

[@xaviertaillefer4583]

Not a question related to you video but I was wondering what fonts you used on your KZbin banner I quite like them

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thanks! They’re both Montserrat, just different weights.

[@nellee123]

Ver nicely explained, thank you! This helps a lot for what I’m trying to work on. Is there a way to group the colors as we trace? I’ve done it in CorelDraw but I can’t figure out how to do this on Illustrator 😭 Thank you!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Let me look into this, off the top of my head I don’t believe there is a way to do this in Illustrator. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@nellee123]

@@MikePickettDesignCo Thank you so much! If there is a way that would be amazing.

[@marinewalkers9400]

@@MikePickettDesignCo Hi. Can you explain how to export them as SVG to import into Clip Studio Paint?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

@@marinewalkers9400once you have the image traced you should be able to use File > Export > Export as… and then choose SVG.

[@ahhsnakes1818]

great video but i cant seem to make it trace white logos. it just turns into a white box. thanks.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thanks! White logos were something I've never tried so I played around with this today. The only way I could get it to work was to save the white png version of the logo with a background color, light grey, blue, pink...whatever - and then pull that file back in to Illustrator and use the Image trace. Once you have something behind the white you'll be able to play with the sliders, mainly threshold, and will be able to pull the white logo off the background.

[@kaneeshabhargavi5209]

i am not getting expand option in my illustrator

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Sorry; without seeing what you see there’s not much I can offer to help. Can you offer any more details? What is the file you’re trying to trace? PNG, jpg?

[@kaneeshabhargavi5209]

@@MikePickettDesignCo I was trying to trace PNG image....but I got the 'expand' option in the objects menu..thanks for helping me out!

[@KarensTinyCarCamper]

Thanks very helpful!

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

You’re welcome!

[@rca-m3b]

where are these options in latest Illustrator?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Looks like things are a little different in 2024, you'll want to select the image and then you should see a button under the image for "Image trace" clicking on first, you should then see the Icon for the Image Trace Panel in the tool bar.

[@rgp7522]

what about the white logo and ignore white?..

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

A white logo could only have a transparent background so there would be no need to use the “Ignore white”.

[@civilgeek2567]

I like this more

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thanks!

[@marineerodriguez8362]

Im new to illustrator, how do you get the toolbar at the top? Mine shows on the left hand side but doesn’t give me the option for the 6 colors only image trace,embed, mask and crop. 😭 help please

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Hey! Sorry just saw this, hope you were able to figure it out. If not I’d need a few more details; which tool bar? Do you have the image selected? Do you see the option button to click? It’s difficult to diagnose issues over chat like this so anything else you can offer me with what you see or don’t see can be useful.

[@lindablevins5]

Hi! My customers jpg logo 2 color and when I select and go to object, image trace, part of the logo disappears? I’m on a Mac with Adobe CC Do you know what might be happening!?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Always a difficult question to answer without seeing the logo or the settings. You can find my email address on the About tab if you’d like to send the file over I can take a look and recommend settings.

[@lindablevins5]

@@MikePickettDesignCo Thank you Mike! I’ll send you an email :) It is a PNG file. Thanks so much!

[@Nustudios]

thank you for this video. I followed your tutorial and i got the result i wanted; however when I save as to a svg format, the result of my image contains a thin white outline of the trace line. does anyone know how to get rid of this thin white outline of the trance line?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

It’s not a simple answer, there are a number of reasons this could occur. It might be the source file, settings in the export, setting used in the trace…without testing the file from scratch the only option would be to try some changes in these things and see if you get a different outcome.

[@Fanbigboy]

how to move the selected things after clicking expand

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Use either of the select tools…the white or black arrow. You might need to ungroup first though.

[@bartonselby1933]

thanks, well done. My only advice is lose the music,it's distracting.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for the feedback.

[@stoobdogg9056]

Mine does not bring the Option to image trace up at all it’s driving me insane

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Can you give me more details?! Would love to help but I need a starting point, what do you see? what have you tried? what are you trying to trace?

[@rayanezeus6364]

What adobe illustrator version do i need fir this feature please?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

CS6 or newer. Any version of CC should have it.

[@empirephotography]

Overall, a very great video! The only thing that stinks from a creator standpoint is that your screen recording is a little blurry in this one making it hard to read what adjustments you are making.

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Strange. In a year of views, over 40k actually - no other complaints of it being blurry, it’s 1080p so maybe you need to check the settings on your end. Just watched again myself and not seeing any issues with clarity.

[@stevesculptor1]

Sort your monitor out!

[@kennethmeyernl]

Lmao. Even on my old ass phone (A41) this video is razor sharp. Maybe you have to select the quality setting to set it to 1080p

[@mohamadjavadahmadi6025]

i liked it man ...👍

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you!

[@tabletoptales7679]

I hate how Photoshop just randomly updates your display. I did this exactly and no image trace showed up..

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Ummm this is for Illustrator…

[@tabletoptales7679]

@@MikePickettDesignCo I know I realized that shortly after the video. Thought image trace was for Photoshop. lol

[@jeffreywalton9454]

Awesome

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you!

[@liana4181]

how can I do image trace without smoothing corners? 😭

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

I would need to see an example image of what you’re trying to trace… without that my best advice, play with the sliders - especially the Paths, Corners and Noise sliders in the Advanced options of the Image Trace Panel

[@liana4181]

@@MikePickettDesignCo omg! first of all, thank you so much for responding to my comment this fast! it's so awesome! I needed a bat illustration, so I decided to find bat logos, or other illustrations on internet, and trace them from image. you know, bats have sharp corners, and the trace couldn't make a exact same bat without smoothing that corners. I tried to edit them, exactly as you told me, yeah it came out as bats with sharper angles, but not completely sharper. there were places where ears were dissappeared, there were some round angles, and etc. I'm confused, because the image I used was an black and white illustration, I don't understand, why is it that hard for illustrator to trace it exact same shape

[@MineLoom]

You didn't show how to actually clean up the points

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

I actually did, use the pen tool. However there are other methods as well like the smooth tool, direct select tool, etc. this video was about how to use Image trace not how to clean up vectors.

[@mwill4786]

Do custom work?

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Depends on the project and the budget.

[@2HAMMERS1]

from a totally newbie view, I am lost at 0:27 I start Adobe Illustrator 2022 and I do not see these two white boxes and *Place* is inaccessible See I told ya, I am a newbie { *sux to be a newbie*

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

The two white boxes you see when the video starts are two art boards I’ve prepped just to get started. If you open an image or have an art board ready to go then you should see the option to Place.

[@ekatsvart]

👌👌👌

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thanks!

[@scrummyvision]

useful but please jump cut the processing time... spent minutes just watching your computer work

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Can’t please everyone…nearly 200k views and no one else has had any issue with watching.

[@alebradazan]

hi joe rogan

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Hey! Don’t see or hear the resemblance, but you’re the second one to say this now?

[@alebradazan]

@@MikePickettDesignCo Haha, maybe is not the voice but the way of talking, sorry my eng is not good

[@CoachTikalTV]

You talk too much… Information… step 1 step 2 step 3… That’s it…

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for your amazing insight. Please share your channel so I can critique how you shoot and edit your videos.

[@9seconds490]

You're one of those people that eat bananas with the peel still intact

[@CoachTikalTV]

@@9seconds490What? You talk too much too… That’s Racist BTW jk… I’m American 🇺🇸 Freedom of saying what I want is not dead.”

[@CoachTikalTV]

@@9seconds490 R.T.J 4 MFer 💎 🤜🏿 🔫

[@anfal2384]

Save my live, thank u 🤌🤍

[@MikePickettDesignCo]

Thank you for commenting! Always happy to hear my content has helped.

[@anfal2384]

waiting for more content like this , we are always here to learn from you 🤩👏@@MikePickettDesignCo