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conversion of scanned images to actual lines??

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  • 05-02-2008 12:37pm
    #1
    BAZM8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 111 ✭✭


    Good morning,

    I've put that heading on but i'm not sure if thats a correct description, Here's the issue.

    My son, who's 9, is mad into drawing comic books and also drawing on the computer on MS paint. He has drawn a complete comic book on paper and i'm wondering if it is possible to scan this and convert the image to lines that could be brought into MS paint or similar for use as he wants to colour it on PC.

    What we've done so far is scan them as a bmp and open in paint but to colour them it takes forever as you effectively have to re-draw the outline to allow for colour filling.

    Any help would be appreciated.


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    #2
    Blisterman
    Registered Users Posts: 7,457 ✭✭✭Blisterman


    Paint's a pretty rubbish program for this.
    Best thing is to use a program which allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast. There's some free ones out therem such as GIMP.
    Experiment with adjusting the contrast, until the lines are black, and the background white.


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    #3
    Cardinal
    Registered Users Posts: 237 ✭✭Cardinal


    I would use adobe illustrator for this as it has an automatic trace function. i.e. it converts your scanned lines into vector lines. Illustrator is pretty expensive though. There are open source alternatives which you can get for free. Inkscape is good, but I don't know if it has a trace function.

    As Blisterman says the GIMP could be your best bet. You should be able to use it to fill sections without needing the line work to be pure black.


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    #4
    DonkeyStyle \o/
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,145 ✭✭✭DonkeyStyle \o/


    Cardinal wrote: »
    Inkscape is good, but I don't know if it has a trace function.
    It does and it's pretty good IMO.
    www.inkscape.org


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    #5
    rockbeer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,422 ✭✭✭rockbeer


    I'd suggest Photoshop - a steep learning curve but all the selection, painting and colour control tools you'll need. The cut-down Elements version will be fine for this project and you can pick up older releases for next to nothing.

    Auto-tracing is OK but you might find it changes the hand-drawn textures of the artwork...


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    #6
    Hank_Scorpio
    Closed Accounts Posts: 552 ✭✭✭Hank_Scorpio


    When you're scanning make sure you scan at 1200dpi for line drawings/line art

    It might be a good idea to use tracing paper and go heavily over the lines with a marker, felt tip pen or something.

    If you do this with the marker, I think you could safely scan at 300 dpi and a jpg.

    But jpg and bmp aren't the best options for saving images, especially original artwork.

    The suggestions so far are great. Get some free software, or a trial of Photoshop and experiment.


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