[Synotic]

OK, first off, I may be wrong on the terminology.. but when I say line art... black and white art.. right?

Let's say I have a cartoon.. or a drawing.. or something.. that's black and white. (not grayscale, but just 2 colors) and then I scan it up, and then choose my size, and clean it up and then do a few things so that there are really only two colors in it... Now I have this bitmap, which if I print, it will look really ugly. So can I like convert it to a vector (it should be simple.. right?), and then print it? So it prints out nice and clean? Like normal text does?

Also, a little off topic.. but if I have a black and white image.. is there an easy way to make a nice clean anti-aliasing? Without like blurring, and using levels.. and crap like that? It appears that fonts (if you look at them in Fontographer) are simply black and white.. and then the system vectorizes them, or at least provides the anti-aliasing look I want. What process are they using? Thanks for any help

[Corys]

I think Illustrator has a tracing filter you can use to make the bitmap file a vector file..
or if it's not too complicated you can just use the bitmap as an overlay and do it by hand.. I usually get better results doing it by hand, and a lot fewer points.

or you can use streamline (did they incorporate all of streamlines features in AI10?)

[CMYKRGB]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Synotic:
[B]OK, first off, I may be wrong on the terminology.. but when I say line art... black and white art.. right?

Let's say I have a cartoon.. or a drawing.. or something.. that's black and white. (not grayscale, but just 2 colors) and then I scan it up, and then choose my size, and clean it up and then do a few things so that there are really only two colors in it... Now I have this bitmap, which if I print, it will look really ugly. So can I like convert it to a vector (it should be simple.. right?), and then print it? So it prints out nice and clean? Like normal text does?

==

The problem lies perhaps with your "scan it up" process. The resolution of your scan should meet or exceed the resolution of your output device. If you are going to print it out on a 1200 dpi laser, then your scan needs to be 1200pixels per inch or better. If outputting eventually on an imagesetter or platesetter @ 2400, 3000 or 3600 then you need an image scanned at least 1800 or even 2400ppi.

Scanners tend to give the cleanest line art reproduction at 100% enlargement (same size) at their highest, non-interpolated rated resolution or an exact 1/"n" fraction thereof (where "n" is a whole integer - like 2 or 4)

Using an original image larger than the final size required is another way to get a higher pixel per inch count. Try to scan at 100% and reduce in PhotoShop without resampling.

[CMYKRGB]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Synotic:
[B]OK, first off, I may be wrong on the terminology.. but when I say line art... black and white art.. right?

Let's say I have a cartoon.. or a drawing.. or something.. that's black and white. (not grayscale, but just 2 colors) and then I scan it up, and then choose my size, and clean it up and then do a few things so that there are really only two colors in it... Now I have this bitmap, which if I print, it will look really ugly. So can I like convert it to a vector (it should be simple.. right?), and then print it? So it prints out nice and clean? Like normal text does?

==

The problem lies perhaps with your "scan it up" process. The resolution of your scan should meet or exceed the resolution of your output device. If you are going to print it out on a 1200 dpi laser, then your scan needs to be 1200pixels per inch or better. If outputting eventually on an imagesetter or platesetter @ 2400, 3000 or 3600 then you need an image scanned at least 1800 or even 2400ppi.

Scanners tend to give the cleanest line art reproduction at 100% enlargement (same size) at their highest, non-interpolated rated resolution or an exact 1/"n" fraction thereof (where "n" is a whole integer - like 2 or 4)

Using an original image larger than the final size required is another way to get a higher pixel per inch count. Try to scan at 100% and reduce in PhotoShop without resampling.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

when ou "clean up" your scan...

maybe feather your selections more (contract/expand as well)...

maybe use brightness/contrast first to get the gray out and get you a better contrast of white and black?

can't adjust imagery like fonts...pixels are pixels

but streamline is the way to go