The Best Way to Vectorize Your Detailed Photoshop Art

[@TomFroese]

Thank you for watching! Take my full illustration classes on Skillshare - Get 30 Days Free when you Use My Links. www.tomfroese.com/teaching

[@DSEpsilon]

Actually? My 17 years of photoshop and illustrator knowledge has been blown out of the water, this is nuts. Complete game changer and thank you for not putting it behind a paywall, that's amazing!

[@andrewgunter1947]

Just wow dude. How did you even begin to figure this out? Twenty plus years working with PS and AI and you just blew my mind.

[@Navigator777777]

I agree. Illustrator is my money maker. Photoshop is just a needed tool. I'm always bitching to Adobe to combine Illustrator and Photoshop into one program to do exactly this.

[@7312james]

Illustrator's Image Trace results have never been satisfying to me, even when giving Illustrator an easy logo to trace it stills adds some weird curves where there should be straight lines. This was a much needed tutorial, and I am so glad I finally found something that legitimately keeps the details you want. Thank you very much!!

[@CoffeeScribe]

Wow, the only person on the internet that shows every single step, and doesn't assume that people know where the various windows are or even why things are called certain names too. THANKS!!!

[@TomFroese]

Here for you!

[@celocelocelocelo]

This is not a tutorial. This is full blown MASTERCLASS! Instantly subscribed!!

[@TomFroese]

Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful!

[@silverbloomdesigns8971]

Fairly new to AI & PS and recently been working a lot with vectors. I've been frustrated by the loss in quality by using image trace so this video has been an absolute godsend. Thanks so much for offering such a valuable tip for free!

[@patrickwu8441]

subscribed within first 10 secs of videos, no bs, no stupid intro, straight to the point, simple valuable infos, love it.

[@TomFroese]

Thanks! I hope I can make more such no-nonsense tutorials, but I do warn you that I'm not always that efficient in my videos! Also, some people have complained on this very video that I took too long giving context in the first 3 minutes. One man's garbage is another man's gold!

[@JohanEnriqueArteagaLopez]

¡¡¡¡This is gold !!!! This technique is a step above the technique you taught in your courses at Skillshare. It's very kind of you to release it for everyone. God bless you Mr. Tom!

[@TomFroese]

Thanks! This is different from my skillshare classes but uses similar techniques. The difference is that the goal is vector output in this video.

[@randomuniicornn]

I am incredibly grateful for this tutorial, the last few months I have worked on my works with photoshop and fresco, which allows me to have my lines vectorized and with a very good resolution, however I have older art that is great and I want to use it for merchandise and I have been looking for a long time for something that would help me vectorize without having to do them from the beginning again, the image tracing of course did not help me at all, since I lost a lot of details and it was frustrating since my works in general contain many details, this has been the tutorial that definitely gave me a solution, I have tried it and it was simply incredible and the details are still there, I am very grateful! 🦄

[@liliiastefanyshyn1210]

hi, how do you make it on multiple color image? this method just turned my image black :(

[@michaelmccrory2220]

That took a Sherlock Holmes level of genius to solve a problem and make it simpler to use. Thank you for sharing your excellent solution. 👍🏼

[@TomFroese]

Elementary, my dear Watson! :)

[@eartho]

it's a technique we've been using since the 90s...

[@TomFroese]

@@eartho That actually makes sense. LiveTrace came in the 2010s, and I remember using clipping paths Photoshop 4 or something around that version. I didn't know it was that easy to convert selections to paths in the 90s though. My earliest experience using PS was on a monochrome Mac with maybe the original PS on it.

[@eartho]

@@TomFroese yeah, Selection to Paths has been around since some of the earliest versions of Ps. I remember using it frequently in my prepress days iin the early to mid 90s.

[@michaelmccrory2220]

@@eartho @eartho We never stop learning and it is good that Tom has taken the effort to remind and tell people who have never seen this technique that this is an option.

[@keithartworker]

Great video! Having worked in Photoshop and Illustrator for 30 years, I have preferred Photoshop's "simple afterthought" path tools to Illustrator's dedicated ones. This tutorial is further evidence.

[@TomFroese]

Glad it was helpful!

[@나니-h6i]

It really helped. It shows the same result as the original image rather than image trace. Thank you so much. 감사합니다! :)

[@TomFroese]

You're welcome 😊

[@lynmeredith8405]

I love this! It preserves hand drawn looks better than any other method. Thank you!

[@TomFroese]

You are so welcome!

[@johntnguyen1976]

This is also going to be a huge time saver (and a quality booster) for my motion design! I spend so much time prepping elements for animation in illustrator. Thanks so much!

[@TomFroese]

Excellent!

[@directedbyericsattler]

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. May your future generations be blessed beyond earthly limits.

[@Szczurzyslawa]

You just expanded my brain sir! I knew all these tools but would never think to use them that way it's so genius, thank you so much!

[@TomFroese]

Thank you! Glad it helped!

[@artbygarth]

This is a fantastic approach! I’ve been struggling with this for years!!

[@mommasoto]

Love this! Been wkg both PS and Ai over 17yrs and I never knew this! Ha! I stick to illustrator mainly but am so excited to switch to this method! Thank you!

[@ironmanTetsuoTV]

I hate image trace with a passion, this tutorial is amazing!

[@sirako]

I knew it was possible cause I saw someone getting a vector so clean from an ink drawing they scanned like 20 min before and it wasn't on that awful trace look but I never figured that out. Thank you so so so much

[@TheDocPixel]

This technique is about 20 years old. Nice to see someone going through the old magazines and making tutorials about some of those "Oldies but Goodies". FYI: I think Deke McClelland was the first to do this. His Mad Scientist experiments were always great and still are.

[@eartho]

more like 25 years old and Deke definitely wasn't the first.

[@yeknommonkey]

@@earthoit was in the ye olde instruction manual that shipped with p shop

[@TheDocPixel]

@@eartho you‘re right. Time sure does fly. Because I remember it was in the handbook too.. remember the days when we read the handbooks?! It was the only way to learn the software, and maybe an article in How or Macworld magazine.

[@KuttyJoe]

@@yeknommonkey Is that right??? This was actually in a Photoshop instruction manual? It's interesting because it says something about how Adobe thought people were using the software in those days.

[@TomFroese]

Well they did build that "selection to paths" function in there for some reason, right? They must have had this in mind.

[@vincedamb4359]

Thank you very much, I always thought this trick existed but never knew the process, in then it’s very simple but so handy, love it !

[@VisualTimmy]

Instant sub.. bro this is nuts! I never though of using this method. Image trace is unreliable and I end up reworking it all by hand. This is has so many use cases, much appreciated!

[@TomFroese]

Thanks so much for the sub! Any other questions send em my way.

[@mr_ocean5598]

Brilliant - I had never thought to use this approach. Thanks for your generosity!

[@TomFroese]

You're very welcome!

[@itsamegrabbins]

Great video! Really informative and helpful. I’ve had to wrestle with image trace for years now but l I’ll have to try this next time.

[@gerdompaula]

Stunning. Agree with the rest something I would never have figured out. Thank you & I just stumbled on it looking to find a shortcut metrhod to make multiple arc's which I didn't find ;)

[@TomFroese]

Thanks! What do you mean “multiple arcs”?

[@maximoibarra5866]

Lo mejor que pude haber aprendido este año

[@kennethreaume6380]

Wow, an amazing alternative to Potrace! Thank you! 🙏🏻

[@envadd.6556]

Amazing how tools we all know can do a lot more then we are aware of

[@Hamiltron_]

I've seen far more complex videos demonstrating how to do this. Well done simplifying this process. Less steps is better :)

[@TomFroese]

That makes me happy! If you ever have the time, I'd love to see some of those more complex videos, just out of curiosity. Thank you!

[@ziocalli9479]

Image vectorization sometimes requires an old-fashioned way, like video. Thank you.

[@StudioHoekhuis]

Great tip! I always wondered why Adobe never updated the Trace Image function, it must be ancient by now...

[@TomFroese]

Good question!

[@FranklinKirby]

This is simply amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!

[@patrickwright8805]

This is fantastic, both is content and presentation, thanks!

[@TomFroese]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mikeinscho987]

Mr. Tom - You're amazing. Thank you. Sincerely, Mike

[@Ebersol_Inc]

Bravo! I would have never guessed that the PSD make maths would retain that level of fidelity. PSD file size (pixels) is critical for sure. But one must ask, "Why can't Illustrator autotrace do this?!"

[@TomFroese]

A very good question!

[@capfever]

The video starts at 03.00

[@TomFroese]

The context starts at 0:00

[@TheGoodContent37]

​@@TomFroesethe context is useless

[@timothychinye6008]

Thanks

[@BGdev305]

EXACTLY what I was thinking! Just do the steps already lol

[@zaugitude]

You people act like you hired this guy, have some appreciation for the time he put into it and respect his decisions. When you make your videos you can start them wherever you like; this is his video.

[@ventiladordesuco]

This is a great technique, I would say that I've seen it before but your explanation is easier to follow. However, as a screen printer myself, I couldn't see why your print shop would ask for a vector even though your Image is 600 dpi and bigger than the final print. As far as I know, that is more than enough to print your shirt, furthermore, the printing process is already lossy, so giving them a lower fidelity artwork sound counterintuitive. Vector artwork is mandatory for stationary print, but the mesh on the screen is also finer than on meshes for garment. In the end, you're saying that the 600dpi (possibly more since you said your artwork is larger than the final print) is not enough for your print shop, that uses a process that is inheritable lossy (we are talking about max 200tpi - threads per inch) and is physically impossible to produce a higher fidelity final print. I think they might prefer a vector, but they're perfectly capable of dealing with 600dpi bitmaps.

[@TomFroese]

Thank you! Two points here: first, I agree, vectors are totally unnecessary. I work with letterpress and silkscreen often and prefer to send colour separations as bitmap files. But I have found there’s no convincing some suppliers about this, and they will refuse to accept anything but vector. Second, the 600dpi in my file is more about having enough resolution for the smallest details in my artwork to come through in the vector, less about retaining fidelity in the final print. But it would be interesting to compare output of 300dpi and 600dpi versions with this process.

[@reevartang564]

@@TomFroese The only reason for the supplier to refuse (that I can think of) - file size on vector files should be lighter in general.

[@nasdriver3583]

Good workflow! Never had to use threshold before, but will deffo use it now

[@jswanson859]

This is brilliant! Makes total sense on how you did it too. I could have used this 100 times. Now I can. Haha Thanks for sharing.

[@TomFroese]

Happy to help! I wish I knew this years ago myself.

[@Alexx9811]

This is incredible, and well explained. Thanks!

[@TomFroese]

You're very welcome!

[@arlofarts9]

holy wow. this opens up so many possibilities. tysm

[@jazzlehazzle]

Brilliant technique. Now we just have to figure out how to get this working for multi-color w/o having to get too deep into the weeds of seps...

[@TomFroese]

The holy grail

[@adamrosenthal7574]

Selecting the path and adding a solid color layer creates a masked shape. Do this for each color layer. Save as psd and open in illustrator, retaining layers. You will have all your colors saved in separate layers in illustrator.

[@TomFroese]

This is close to how I show it in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJq3nHSDibSnfZo

[@sidsinnocence]

I was literally looking for a solution like this a few days ago. Trace image was not working. Ended up cleaning the image pixel by pixel. Thank you so much!!

[@TomFroese]

Glad I could help! Wish it could have come sooner for you though!

[@sidsinnocence]

@@TomFroese That it was available at all is a godsend! Google results being as they are, all it provided were alternative ways to toggle trace image options. That wasn't the last time I'll be in that position and now I have an easy solution. Plus- pixel by pixel editing was a great exercise in attention to detail XD

[@ChrisBowenBenyo]

Very cool, thank you for sharing!

[@MonjurulIslam-h4v]

This guy is just fall from sky to us 🖖

[@vincema4018]

Fantastic method!!! I'll try it in a while!

[@3DJapan]

I don't have illustrator. There are several very good vector AI tools on the web. I also love a program called Vector Magic.

[@TomFroese]

Are they free? Or do you pay a sub? Curious how they might compare.

[@glaucobass]

@@TomFroese thank your for sharing this tip. I have both, Illustrator and Vector Magic. Using this technique I could get better results than both of them.

[@philteders]

great video like the actions. I don't have adobe Illustrator, could you tell me other programs that I could export to?

[@TomFroese]

You can actually do the exclude paths operation directly in PS. If you create a fill layer using the path in PS you should be able to see the result there. I’ve heard good things about Krita if you’re looking for a free vector based graphics app.

[@IIAspire]

This is super helpful! Thanks for sharing!

[@ShiftingCar]

Fantastic I've been searching for this for a long time. TY!!!! Does this also work with high-colored images or better for B&W?

[@TomFroese]

I ask everyone who asks this question (it gets asked a lot), why? Why do you want to vectorize a full colour image? That would help me answer the question. So far nobody has answered me back!

[@TomFroese]

It's for single colour art only. But I'm happy to say I have a video that I hope helps - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJq3nHSDibSnfZo

[@MoolahZaga]

That's pretty cool bro!, never knew that functionality! Especially the last littlebit "pathfinder - exclude"

[@KaiBuskirk]

Thank You! After 40 years your technique will save me massive amounts of hours linking people to your video… DIY - greatest Tutorial !!! Only i missed was the file start resolution in photoshop?

[@TomFroese]

Thank you, please do share away! Resolution is in there. This file was around 14x16 “ at 600, if I remember correctly. That’s because of how small the lettering and texture details were.

[@brianpeterson6481]

This is BRILLIANT!! Thank you!

[@TomFroese]

You’re welcome!

[@ryanrockers]

Cool, good tip. Select to path for the win

[@TomFroese]

That's the idea in a nutshell!

[@TinaSotis]

My jaw is on the floor. omg. this is genius.

[@veerababu9933]

Thank you for sharing the technique

[@trollenz]

That's a nice approach 👌🏻 Thanks.

[@karlgustafson7850]

That is awesome. Thanks for this tutorial!

[@TomFroese]

Glad it was helpful!

[@passion_proh-jects]

Such a long laborious process for something that CorelDraw does in a few clicks. That said, still very helpful for PS users. Thank you!

[@MarcoTheHEXican]

INCREDIBLE! MORE PLEASE!

[@TomFroese]

OK!

[@JWeber984]

Great Video Very informative Thank you. Question Now what if i used a layer style in photoshop thats tweaked it alot, Has a lot going on. I havnt found a way to convert it to a vector while keeping those properties in tact. Any Suggestions?

[@TomFroese]

Any layer style or effect has to be reducible to just black and white. No gradients, and no semitransparencies.

[@BLTDFRNT]

stunning flow, thank you so much

[@clairemardesich8576]

Omg, thank you so much for sharing this invaluable information!

[@DJDLS]

very helpful thank you!

[@TomFroese]

Glad it was helpful!

[@drawwitheli4697]

Thanks so much! This is really useful to know

[@yaqisthebest]

I was not expecting this level of such a well thought out tutorial when I clicked this video, I thought that this was going to be another quick hack with questionable quality, but this goes wayyy past my Expectations!!!

[@TomFroese]

Thank you! Happy to exceed your expectations. No click bait here.

[@WiremuTeKani]

This is brilliant. Thank you!

[@TomFroese]

Glad it helped!

[@patriciofreire3375]

Absolutely awesome! I hate the Illustrator tool to vectorize.

[@alejamclean]

You are my new god! #Amazing trick! Thank you!!❤

[@Harpthefox1]

THank you so much you just saved me so much time!

[@TomFroese]

Glad I could help!

[@blahokay1]

What a fantastic tutorial. Love it

[@DustSeeker163]

You are insane and I love you! This is amazing!

[@TomFroese]

Haha, feeling the love!

[@thewaliiiii]

Many steps, but could be useful one day. Thanks! :)

[@TomFroese]

Feels like just a few steps to me after years of trying to figure this technique out 😂

[@SSHK237]

*This is brilliant!* Thanx. Actually I was under the impression that the lesser the anchor points in any Illustrator file. This way the artwork is filled with thousands of anchor points. Can we apply the *Object* ... *Paths* ... *Simplify* to lessen the anchor points?

[@TomFroese]

Not a bad idea to experiment with this but it may be an unnecessary extra step.

[@discjunkiesDGT]

saved me so much time and $$, thought i'd have to buy illustrator, this was a great simple explanation. Thank you

[@TomFroese]

Glad it helped!

[@LuisCasstle]

You'll still want it if you'll be working with vector files a lot. That or Inkscape which is free.

[@jeremygordonstudio]

This is so helpful, thank you!

[@andrespalacios1909]

Thank you SO much for this Tom!

[@TomFroese]

Hope it helps!

[@damarisk8252]

OMG!! You're a genius! This is soooo much better than image trace ❤❤❤ Thanks for sharing!!

[@TomFroese]

Thank you! It took me a long time to figure this out!

[@NovemberAutum]

Wow what a great tip! Thanks 🙏🏼

[@TomFroese]

You're so welcome!

[@mangjose5446]

thanks so much for sharing this.. this method is superb 😎

[@Taumisch]

Well done !

[@mubbashirmumtaz8585]

Really helpful

[@paulkinnaird7015]

Great video. How do I separate colors as you suggested. Do I create a channel for each. Thanks

[@TomFroese]

Great question! I'll make a video about this soon.

[@TomFroese]

Thank you … this is how I recently vectorized colour art: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJq3nHSDibSnfZo

[@utmostkibbles9125]

How well does this work with color images? Definitely need to give this a try regardless!

[@TomFroese]

Thanks! See 0:34 for colour notes.

[@utmostkibbles9125]

@@TomFroese somehow I totally missed that xD thanks!

[@TomFroese]

One or two comments say the first 3 minutes were useless ;)

[@bryangonzales3217]

Thanks!

[@Mark-ql5ni]

LEGENDARY!!

[@sumuph]

Great tutorial. Thank you!

[@TomFroese]

Thanks for watching!

[@Gwennie363]

Awesome tip

[@TomFroese]

Glad you think so!

[@dphstudioz]

Thank you

[@SL_UNIQUE_CONTENT]

subscribed 💪💪 good luck

[@supbra1]

Really cool!

[@chris-piascik]

Bro u said this was best but like how can it be best if you didn’t even make the art in illustrator bc that is vector and then why did provide context I didn’t want it and this is supposed to be FOR ME. And like how can u say it is vector when I do this and then export my gif and it’s pixelated when I zoom in? So why did you lied? Jk❤ great video! I’ve never tried this technique but I definitely will be using it next time I need to convert something! Back in the day I used to use this software called Cocoapotrace and it was so good at vectorizing hand drawn art. Sadly it’s no longer around.

[@TomFroese]

Dude chill 😂 I’m sure there are paid apps that do better than this (some are mentioned in the comments). Works great when you need to preserve fun details.

[@jrfarias5044]

Thank you for your help

[@alicea.8645]

Thank you for sharing!

[@TomFroese]

My pleasure!

[@thepurpleufo]

Wow...cool...thank you.

[@TomFroese]

You're welcome!

[@xonx209]

After the blur trick, would illustrator be able to vectorize it better?

[@TomFroese]

I tried it. It still struggles to balance fine detail and clarity in my experience.

[@mrtahirjavaid]

Great Job!

[@TomFroese]

Thanks!

[@coryspeldeart]

This is a game changer! Thank you so much for this!

[@TomFroese]

Happy to help!

[@TimiDesign]

Thanks