I usually only use photoshop and been recently getting a lot of vector requests. Does anyone have a specifice way or technique they would like to share. I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!!!

Use Illustrator or Inkscape for vector images.

Photoshop is a bitmap editing tool, while it does have some vector capabilities they are not ideal.

Depending on the file itself - you could use Livetrace in Illustrator - it works well sometimes but then sometimes, it fails miserably.

You should probably start taking Illustrator seriously - I seem to be spending more and more time on Illustrator nowadays along with Flash.

A high quality bitmap image will look just as good as a vector image, unless the file is big in dimensions and turns out to be a large file then it may be worth using vector.

I think my main concern is learning the whole illustrator program I mean I guess if I learned photoshop on trial and error I guess you guys are right there is no other way than to tackle it directly!! Thanks everyone for your great input you don't know how much I appreciate it and helpful it is, keep it coming hehe, PS This site rocks!!!

If you have PS CS4, it has much better vector capabilities than it's predecessors, you just have to learn to master the pen tool.

I think Corel Trace or Corel Knockout would help you on this issue.

Thanks everyone for the info, it helped

Originally Posted by LadynRed

If you have PS CS4, it has much better vector capabilities than it's predecessors, you just have to learn to master the pen tool.

LadynRed: I was very surprised to see the difference in CS4's vector abilities too. The pen tool is definitely tricky to learn isn't it? Once you do though it's great. I've only used it a few times in PS but I use it all the time in Illustrator. New avatar? I like it!

I know you can convert vector layers in Illustrator to PS keeping the layers intact (most of the time) but it never looks as good. Being in print design - I have always used Illustrator for logo's

Illutrator is my first love and still my favorite. I love the way you can draw, paint and create your own colors for gradients. It's also got some great tools for manipulating text. Most of my artwork is done in Illustrator.

pbmedia: A good way to learn the pen tool is to trace over different shapes with it. once you get the hang of it you can draw freely and easily. I still use the tracing method if I'm in a hurry or want curved lines combined with straight lines. I will trace over PART of a picture to achieve one shape. For example if I want to draw an open book, I will trace the top part of a heart then stretch the lines out on each end so it looks like the top pages of an open book. I'm not very good at drawing smooth lines especially freehand, that's why I do it this way. The smooth tool works good in Illustrator but it changes the anchor points too much for my liking.

if you decide to use it and need help - send me a message - I'm pretty familiar with Illustrator and will help in any way that I can.