*BB Special* 3 Ways: VECTOR HALFTONES from RASTER Images
This is by far the most-emailed question I get here at BittBox. How can you make vector halftones from raster images? Well, our friends at Adobe haven’t seen the need to throw us a bone in this situation yet, but there are some brave souls out there taking on the challenge themselves, and answering the call. I’m going to show you 3 different ways to create vector halftones from raster images, 2 of which are free, and the 3rd is only $15. Grab a random image from your archive, and let’s get to it. . .
First things first, the image I’m using in these examples is a CC liscensed portrait by *Zara over at Flickr.
1. Vectoraster by Lost Minds
Price: $15, [Mac only, OS X 10.3 or later]
(PC users skip to #2) Lets start with the best of the 3, Vectoraster by Lost Minds. Unfortunately, Vectoraster is only available for Mac and has a $15 price tag, but it’s well worth the cost once you see the features its packed with. First of all, and probably most importantly, Vectoraster lets you see your adjustments in real-time. This means that as you drag the sliders and adjust the settings, you don’t have to wait for a preview, or publish the file multiple times to see what you get. The software waits to process anything until you export the file. Pretty nice. Vectoraster is also a breeze to use. Let’s take it for a test run…
Download and install Vectoraster and lets dive in.
After you install it, if you’re not sure if you want to purchase it yet, just close the registration box. You can purchase a license later.
Now with Vectoraster open, you won’t see any windows at first. You have to go to File > New, or hit Command + N to bring up the interface.
Once you have the interface in front of you, drag your raster image to the “image well,” not the blank window. Or you can click on “Browse” in the upper right.
Now that you have your image loaded, Vectoraster will automatically display a halftone over the top of your image with the default settings.
I like to take the slider at the bottom all the way to the right, so all I see is the halftone, not the image, but do what you like.
Now all you have to do is start playing with the settings to get your desired effect. You can change things like the shape of the dot, spacing, rotation, grid size, minimum and maximum dot size, and much more, in real-time. You can even invert the image itself, or choose to make the halftone only hit a specific color.
You can even apply effects to the grid itself. Like twist, wave, bulge etc:
Once you have your halftone the way you want it, go to File > Export as EPS… and save your file. Now you’ve got a nice Vector Halftone that you can open in Illustrator and apply it to an infinite amount of uses.
2. Scriptographer Plugin for Illustrator
Price: Free [PC + Mac, Illustrator 9+]
The Scriptographer plugin is a handy set of scripts for Illustrator that will do vector halftones, but the plugin itself does a lot more than just vector halftones. And best of all, it’s free. (the author does accept donations though). For the longest time, Scriptographer wasn’t available for Intel Macs, but in late 2007, the new scripts were released. (sweetness).
Download and install Sciptographer and we’ll get started.
Installation instructions are here
First, open Illustrator and place your image on the artboard. Go to File > Place, then navigate to your image file to place it.
Now, I’ve only dabbled with Scriptographer and I manage to get desirable results somewhat consistently, but I’m pretty sure that the size of your placed image really doesn’t matter, so I typically scale my image way down, to almost thumbnail size. My artboard is about 500 x 500px, and here is the size of my placed image: (quite small)
/////////////// ! Important ! //////////////////
You need to ‘Rasterize’ your placed image. I’m not 100% sure why, but from poking around some documentation and a few google searches, this seems to be an important step in order to get Scriptographer to behave properly. If you skip this step (which I did a few times) it will take much longer to run the script, and possibly crash Illustrator at the same time. Select your image and go to Object >Rasterize.
Choose “72 dpi” for your Rasterize setting and click OK.
The next step is to draw a dot (or a star, square, whatever you want your halftone to consist of) on the artboard. Keep in mind that you can set the scale of the dot later, when we run the script, so any dot will do fine. Here’s my artboard with my image and my dot:
Now you need to open the Scriptographer window. After I installed Scriptographer, the window automatically appeared, but if you don’t see it, go to Window > Scriptographer > Main.
Next, select BOTH your image and your dot, and in the Scriptographer window select the “Object Raster” script and hit the play button in the lower left corner to run the script.
You’ll now have 2 options before the script runs. Grid size and Object scale. Grid size is the distance between the dots, and Object Scale is the maximum dot size. If you leave Object scale at 100%, your biggest dot will be the same size as the one you drew on the artboard. Play around with these settings later, just click Ok to run the script.
After you click Ok, you’ll see the progress indicator. It might take a moment or two for the script to run, but you might not see anything on the artboard after it finishes. When I run the script, it places the finished product up and to the left of my artboard (out of view). You can zoom way out before running the script if this bothers you.
And after the script is done, the result is typically very large. So I scaled it way down and took a screenshot. Here’s the final product using the Scriptographer plugin:
Now, this is why I ranked Vectoraster higher on the scale. If you use Scriptographer, it’s pretty much trial and error, and there are only 2 settings you can play with to try to get your desired output, nevertheless it’s a gem of a plugin. Repeat this process with a couple different settings to see if you can get what you are looking for.
3. The Rasterbator
Price: Free [PC only Download, Online App for everyone else]
The Rasterbator is meant for scaling images up to huge proportions. In other words, take a jpeg, and make it printable for a billboard. To do this, it creates halftone patterns on a very large scale from a very small image. If you aren’t looking for anything very detailed, it’s not a bad solution, but certainly not the best. If you’re a PC user, you can download a standalone version, and everyone else can Rasterbate images online. Lets give it a go…You can download the desktop version, but since I’m on a Mac, I’m going to walk through the online version.
Go to the online version here
Upload your image and you should see something like this:
Hit “Next” at the bottom, and you’ll get a dialogue box. Click Ok.
Now you should see your image on a grid. You can adjust your paper size if you like.
Now scale your image down to fit on a single page. The Rasterbator outputs PDF files, so if you don’t scale your image down to fit on a single page, it will output a multi-page pdf and you’ll only get a section of your image when you import it to Illustrator
Click “Next” and you’ll get another promt. Click “Continue.”
Now all you have to do is select your dot size, then click the “Rasterbate” button. (You can also set color options here if you like)
After your image has been processed, you’ll get a download prompt. Click “Save to Disk” and it will save to your browser’s default downloads folder.
I mentioned earlier that The Rasterbator outputs PDF files, but luckily it outputs PDF’s with vector data. So now all you have to do is open the PDF with Illustrator and you can do whatever you want with it. Save it as an EPS, AI, or whatever.
Here is the final result. Like I said, not quite as detailed, but a vector halftone nonetheless. You won’t find me complaining about a free service, even if it is a little less than I hoped for. The Rasterbator has few options, but if used for the right purpose, you can sometimes get the results you want. (In this case, the portrait didn’t turn out quite as detailed as I’d like, but sometimes you have to play around with the settings (paper size and dot size) to get what you’re looking for.
That’s it folks. Three different ways to make vector halftones from raster images in seconds (literally). So, what are you waiting for? Go make some vector halftones!
Related Posts:
- How to use Vector Files in Web Design
- How to Make Vector Grunge
- How to Vectorize Text with 1 click - Photoshop CS2
- Illustrator 101: To Scale or Not to Scale? Strokes, That Is.
- The Power (and ease) of Patterns in Illustrator
- How to make Smooth Lines in Illustrator
Tags: Tutorial, Vector, Vector Halftone
You are my hero
very nice.
I so needed this yesterday!
You work miracles. Remember: When in doubt, rasterize!!!
this is so good. so helpfull. thanks for the information.!
this is cool and very handy! Thanks Bitt :D
sweeeeeeeeeet
thanks
Thank you veryy muuuuuch!=)
why not just greyscale+bitmap/halftone in photoshop, then livetrace in illustrator?
Is anyone here using scriptographer with an intel mac?… It says runs native only in PPC, I don’t wanna mess with it if its all “buggy”
and to ase livetrace isn’t pick up those fine halftone dots, not even a little bit.
@mmolai
If you read the download page carefully, it notes that Scriptographer works fine for Intel Macs running CS3.
@ ase
Because Live Trace wil most likely not produce perfect circles, and with these 3 methods, you can get perfect circles, every time. AND not only can you get circles (dots) but you can even use lines, polygons, or even letters/characters as your halftone object. (Vectoraster, Scriptogerapher -no letters)
~Bitt
@mmolai: I’ve tried it on several computers, including intel macs. But even on windows it will make illustrator crash from time to time (when running scripts duh), so just make sure you save before trying it :P
Sweet Jimminy ! Downloaded. Purchased. And just used Vectoraster and it’s great — exactly the toll we needed for a new ad campaign.
Bless you for finding the cool tools.
The only downside is you’ve just fueled my star-addiction :)
You forgot 1 more free way - Inkscape. Use a black filled circle (or any other shape or color for that matter) with Edit>Clone>Create Tiled Clones and check the ‘Trace drawing under the tiles’.
It does need some experimentation with the values to get an ideal halftone picture, and sometimes you might need to scale after unlinking the clones if you want overlapping shapes. But it works!
Thanks for this! But…Scriptographer does not work with my illustrator CS…It appears in the menu, I can even choose the script, but then…nothing happens! When I push play, nothing happens…
Any idea?
Thanks,
MAtt
Hi, I was looking for something like Vectoraster for ages, but I couldn’t find anything. Was I blind or is it quite new application? Anyway this post is one of the most useful here on Bittox. Great job and thank you very much.
Pixelspectrum.
…I think it’s because of my old aged Java SE, and my 10.3.9 OSX… saaaaad! I’ll find a way, anyway.
bye
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Yeah - I couldn’t get scripographer to work either. I think their site is down…
Vectoraster looks awesome, thanks!!. I’ve been using rasterbator online for a while. I’ve found that with a bit of patience you can get some more detailed results. I usually upload an image then select it to be reproduced over say 4 A4 sheets. Then once I’ve downloaded the PDF I open each page in illustrator and by copying and pasting, tile the 4 pages back onto one page. Group the whole lot and enlarge or reduce as desired.
I think I’ll be investing in Vectoraster though!!
Fantastic, thanks!
Anyone else having problems with Vectoraster and Leopard?
that kind of looks like a bad xerox.
There is a script from James Talmage which also works as a vectorasterizer:
It is a little bit slow in the process, but the main advantage here is that each raster dot is automatically a symbol, so changing them is very easy.
Instruction Pdf:
http://www.illustrationetc.com/aibuds/AI_FauxHalftone/AI_FauxHalftone.pdf
Javascript:
http://www.illustrationetc.com/aibuds/AI_FauxHalftone/JET_FauxHalftone.zip
Worked fine here on an Intel iMac / Illustrator CS3.
or for free, you can just convert the image to bitmap in photoshop- then live trace it in illustrator. It has plenty of options for halftone dithering (size & shape)
thats what i do :P
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Another great software is Vextractor. I have version 9 and it has saved me. I’ve successfully converted full color images and had to make very few edits.
I’ve done half tone images before by creating the effect in Photoshop, than using Vextractor to make it vector.
It’s not free ($99), but I think worth it: http://www.vextrasoft.com/
My wife and I used the Rasterbator on some engagement photos and created murals for our wedding reception. It was a cheap way to get something up on some white walls. It was a nice artisitc touch and got alot of attention.
Just thought I’d share that idea on here.
Thanks Bitt! Rock on!
nice! thx Bitt!!!!!!!
Weird, after installing scriptographer, my live trace woulnt work! i get an warning signal, but no message.. and everything else freezes.. but i still get pathfinder to work, and then i can deselect the image.. any ideas on what might have happened? it just pisses me off!
thanks!
I’ve just discovered http://www.vikmuniz.net via ted.com - brilliant use of halftone dots in flash for navigation.
i’ve had vectoraster for a while now and i think it’s a fantastic little program. the best $15 i’ve ever spent. it’s a bargain.
Also, if you don’t want to download this stuff, one can always use an image set to grayscale, do a halftone in photoshop, then livetrace it in Illustrator. As long as the image resolution is 300dpi or higher, the result is tolerable.
But, of course, these programs would have been nice to know about when I had to figure out that other way, so kudos for the post.
I will say this, I’ve had to deal with halftoning with screenprinting for over 9 years, since my OS8.6 G3 days. I had to master the halftone bitmap/tif effect and suffer through the live trace features and/or improvements just to figure out a way to get a job to work. Although I do like CS3’s live trace, it’s cool to see new programs dealing with halftones. I’ll go spend the 15 bones to save myself some time!
ugh… i tried vectoraster (which i need desperately)… it worked. I bought it. Now it quits within 30 seconds. oi… and i see no info anywhere on how to fix it…. anyone have any ideas?
I’ve found another way to to this…
Open your image in Photoshop.
Select Image>Mode>Grayscale. Click ok to discard color info.
Select Image>Mode>CMYK Color. (Image needs to be CMYK or RGB)
Then Filter>Pixelate>Color Halftone.
In the Color Halftone Menu change all the screen angles to 45. Change the Max Radius to vary the dot size. Usually between 4 and 10 works well.
Hope this helps some people.
Good stuff. I’ll be buying a new computer (Mac) in the near future and it’s nice to know stuff like this so that when I’m setting it up I don’t have to go looking for all this stuff.
why not just greyscale+bitmap/halftone in photoshop, then livetrace in illustrator?
Is anyone else annoyed by how obscure the control panels are on these programs? I find it very difficult to figure out things like maximum dot size when Verctoraster and Scriptographer have arbitrary “size” panels that dont seem to correlate to anything.
My way? make the halftone high res in photoshop. Live trace it and then use Filter>Convert to Shape>Ellipse. It makes perfect circles and I find it give me far more control over exact size and shape. The others are great at just making vector halftones, but really disappoint when you need something more technical.
shouldn’t the dot pattern appear to be at a 45 degree angle instead of a 90 degree angle?
Great post. I bought Vectoraster today to play around with. Some good comments on other options as well.
I know this post is about creating halftone images. But I figured I’d mention Vectormagic. for vector conversion even though its not for halftones: http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/
hi
You are wonderful… Scriptographer seems to be a good tool, but does not work at all on my Intel Mac with CS3. It appears correctly, but none of the scripts starts, just do nothnig… Do you have any Idea, why?
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I purchased this software. Buyer beware! it won’t work on leopard and the software seller has not responded in weeks to refund my money with 5 email attempts!
awesome! love it soooooooooo much!
Why oh why isn’t Vectoraster available for Windows? It looks like an amazing app!
I’m not having any problems with vectoraster on leopard, seems like they sent out a new version 2.1.2 fixing the problems.
I’ve tried all 3 programs and mine dont look that spectacular. Ok, but they could be better. I been searching for weeks on end about vector halftone dots. I came across a few stock sites looking for various patterns to help me out with a few projects. Over at vetcorstock.com there is one guy that has some neat patterns. I bought a few from there and they’re circular. See here: http://vectorstock.com/gallery/1078/
I guess i’ll have to suffice with the above programs and just give them a workaround.
Anyways, thanks for the mention of this, it’s been of good help from what I was previously doing.
-T
@tammie
Vectoraster works perfectly in Leopard. No crashes, no hiccups. Best 15 bucks any graphic designer could spend.
great post. I’m gonna play with it right now :)
I gotta question about the screenshot, after you applied the scriptographer to the image. what is a screenshot and what can be done about the final image taking a lot of space and illustrator runs super slow afterwards.
You are genius !!
I will get vectoraster asap! 15$ is a steal for ALL the settings you can play with.. thank you
use illustrator
Here You’ve got a program called raster.exe and it does the job perfectly. And free.
I’ve been looking for such software some years ago, but got it just recently , and I’m so happy :D
http://xaraxtv.at.tut.by/downloads.htm
Remember to use Copy2ClpBrd, and then ctrl+v in your vector program.
Cheers
Ohh, and it’s really fast, and it doesn’t slow down your computer after pasing the image … at least when it’s grouped in circles :]
hi. thank you very much
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