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So I have some designs that I'm trying to get print ready. They're all 1 to 2 colors and were designed in Photoshop at 8 inches x 8 inches and 300 dpi. I didn't realize, but the designs actually need to be 11 inches x 11 inches and 300 dpi for the print. As a result, I'm trying to pick up Adobe Illustrator and make the files print ready for that size. My first instinct was to vectorize the image.

I am using the Image Trace tool on a layer that is the 1 color separated from the white background. My problem is that the Image Trace is leaving out a lot of details that are necessary for the design. You can see in the image what I am referring to. Is there anyway to include these details (other than doing it by hand, too many details missing to do that), or alternatively, is there any better way to make an image in Photoshop print ready at a larger size?

Before the trace:

Before Trace

After the trace:

After Trace

My settings:

Settings

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  • I seem to get pretty accurate results - click for image. This is merely using the image you posted here. What version of AI are you using? Not sure why you're getting 200 times the paths I did, unless you've only shown a piece of the art.
    – Scott
    Jun 27, 2014 at 2:30
  • This is a smaller version of the image. I didn't feel comfortable posting the full image. I am using CS6 on a Mac.
    – Asher Johnson
    Jun 27, 2014 at 2:35
  • Have you tried simply resizing in Photoshop? An enlargement by 3" for art probably won't cause too many interpolation issues if the resolution is high.
    – Scott
    Jun 27, 2014 at 2:36
  • I just tested out the screenshot I posted and it looks just like yours. Do you think that it could be because the original image is an 8x8 300 dpi quality psd file that only had the 1-color in the layer (not sure if smaller images work better)?
    – Asher Johnson
    Jun 27, 2014 at 2:39
  • It's possible that artwork in other areas is causing some settings to alter the overall results - for example Corners at 100% may not be great for the entire image. Paths may need to be adjusted when dealing with the entire image. There's no blanket answer here. It's just a matter of adjusting until you get better results.
    – Scott
    Jun 27, 2014 at 2:42

3 Answers 3

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What you can do is import your image in Illustrator at lower resolution (therefore bigger size) and try to trace it again. By lower resolution I mean: you need to keep the same number of pixels and resize the size of the image by lowering the resolution in Photoshop. It will be the exact same image but bigger at a lower resolution.

There will be more points and curves, and more details this way when you'll trace your image.

Illustrator doesn't really care about the resolution for image trace, and you can almost import your picture at 72dpi in a very large size, and then simply shrink back the traced image to the size you want, once it's done.

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I've found that increasing the paths in the settings has helped me to preserve more detail in my images. Hope this helps.

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You will get better results scaling up in Photoshop. Like Scott said above, since you're only going up 3", the loss of definition will barely be noticeable.

enter image description here

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  • Please explain better what you mean, for example with adding some screenshots showing your solution ...
    – Mensch
    Jan 20, 2019 at 9:28
  • By scaling up I mean resizing. Go into Photoshop, go to Image > Image Size. With Resample checked, change your width and height from 8 inches, to 11 inches. Beside Resample is a dropdown, the best enlargement choice is "Preserve Detail 2.0", but you can try different ones to see which results are best for your image. However, remember, this is enlarging an image with software, so if you enlarge by too much you will lose quality. But enlarging by 3 inches is usually not a big problem.
    – Ash
    Jan 21, 2019 at 4:08

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