I was given a scanned image from a client today that was originally a drawing done in pencil.

I'd like to convert this pencil image (somehow) into something that looks a little more like a clipart image. I have Corel PSP X2 but none of the default effect filters seem to be doing the trick.

Any suggestions would be most helpful!

Hmm.. what type of look do you mean when you say 'more like a clipart image' ? Something in particular ?

Maybe the quality of the scan was too low??

Chance are the scan will never look as sharp. I have seen the Mona Lisa and I have seen the pictures. The pictures are a pale imitation of the orginal.

Sounds like the Live Trace feature in Illustrator would do the trick. It takes a scanned image and turns it into a vector image that you can resize without loosing quality.

Todd

Sounds like you're wanting to convert this pencil sketch to line art. The way I do that is by creating a layer over the scanned image and tracing with the pen tool, same as I used to ink cartoons on a lightbox. Filters in my experience don't really help there, because with pencil sketches the scan picks up everything, smudges and all, and filters include them as foreground. The "inked" layer you create you save as a separate file, and can be saved as a vector.

Originally Posted by taallison

Sounds like the Live Trace feature in Illustrator would do the trick. It takes a scanned image and turns it into a vector image that you can resize without loosing quality.

Todd

Yep, this is the best way to go. In class my graphic design teacher has us adjust the levels and everything in Photoshop, then bring it to Illustrator and do a live trace.

Except that he's using Corel, which means his options are more limited, and he was having problems with the filters at his disposal. And it's because it's a pencil sketch. So even if he had Live Trace at his disposal it wouldn't help because he'd get a wonderful trace of a blob. Which is why I told him in this case he'd have to clean it up by tracing it himself in another layer before saving or exporting as a vector.

If you have Corel graphics suite you have a trace function available to use, its not as good as Illustrator but it will do the trick, the little corel pencil icon in your tools bar has links to the diff programs that come in the package and corel trace is there.

You need to scan it at a very high resolution 1200 dpi should do it if you have a scanner that can handle that.. then use livetrace in illustrator if u have that.. lol

Originally Posted by slickwilly789

You need to scan it at a very high resolution 1200 dpi should do it if you have a scanner that can handle that.. then use livetrace in illustrator if u have that.. lol

again, he does not have illustrator.

Hally & Tim had the best advise that he will hopefully use in the future. For now he held a contest and had another graphic designer do this for him. It turned out really nicely.