Converting hand drawn artwork/logos into vector images

[Thetech]

Could anyone give me any tips on converting hand drawn logo's into vector images?
I've got a friend who can't do computer graphics but is great at drawing using pencils and paper. I was thinking about having them draw me a logo and then converting it to vector using Inkscape. Is it possible to do so without turning the project into a new part time job?

 

[Crono]

It would be easier if your friend could use a tablet to input it directly. Aside from that, auto converting or manually converting to vector seems to be only way. That or hire someone who can do vector graphics.

 

[rivan]

Auto conversion has come a long way, but still generally sucks. Vector tools generally have a learning curve (though inkscape might be friendlier - don't know it).

Depending on the complexity and integrity of the source, you can likely get it done fairly inexpensively.

 

[Aharami]

what kind of logo? Illustrator has something called 'Live Trace' that has worked wonderfully for black and white damask patterns for our wedding invitations.

 

[Aharami]

or try this
http://vectormagic.com/home

 

[Paperdoc]

The good news is that many logos actually are relatively simple designs. I've done this two ways with Corel Draw. One is to use their included Powertrace tool. It will generate a vector representation which you can edit. Early versions of this never impressed me much, although I have not tried the new ones. My preferred technique is simply to place a copy of the bitmap image in a new blank document and then draw my own vectors on top of it. That's basically a manual trace. If you make all your tracing in a distinctive color they are easier to see and pick for editing. When done, change all the vector object colors and fills to duplicate the original as best you can. At some point you will move the original bitmap away from the vector copy, and eventually you just delete the bitmap from your drawing.

 

[xanis]

It all depends on what you're converting. If it's something with simple shapes/edges, Illustrator's Live Trace will probably work fine. However, if it's something more complicated, you'll probably need someone that knows Illustrator pretty well and can use the pen tool. I've been using Illustrator this year for tracing and whatnot... it's not as bad as it seems, it just takes a little getting used to.

 

[DrVos]

My logo design ALWAYS begins with pen and paper. This is my workflow whenever I'm ready to move from pen/paper to the computer:

1. Use pen with tracing paper to trace logo
2. Scan drawing
3. Import into Photoshop and adjust levels to get strong blacks and whites, and to remove unnecessary gray tones.
4. Import into Illustrator and reduce transparency to to 50%
5. Trace using pen and/or shape tools - You don't have to get it exactly right the first time...you can lay down a rough trace and tighten up your curves and angles later.
6. Refine. Refine. Refine.

The problem with using tools like LiveTrace is that it adds all this extraneous geometry that makes the image harder to work with. You are better investing in getting the logo drawn correctly now instead of dealing with LiveTrace's "quirks" in your printed work in the future.