How to Vectorize an Image in Illustrator

You’ve sketched out the perfect design on a piece of paper, but now you need to get it onto your computer so you can scale, edit and share it. You could, of course, scan it and manually trace it using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. But there’s a better way!

Illustrator has a function called Image Trace, which can take any pixel-based image—for example, a scanned drawing or a photo—and automatically turn it into a vector image. With this tool, you can vectorize any image in just a few clicks. 

Pixels vs. Vectors Explained

What exactly does vectorizing an image do?

Take any JPG file and try to zoom in as far as possible. At a certain point, the image starts to get pixelated. This is because there is a limited number of pixels in the image, so you can only scale it so much before it starts to lose quality. This isn’t ideal for things like logos and digital illustrations because they frequently need to be resized, edited and shared on different platforms and devices. 

Vectorizing a pixel-based image turns it into a set of vector graphics, which are images built using mathematical formulas, rather than pixels. This means that you can resize them infinitely without losing quality. 

How to Vectorize an Image in 9 Steps

If you’ve ever wanted to digitize your drawings, turn photos into digital illustrations or vectorize your Procreate art into scalable graphics, Adobe Illustrator’s Image Trace tool makes this incredibly easy. 

Let’s use the photo below as an example. 

Step 1: Open Your Image in Adobe Illustrator

Open up Adobe Illustrator and create a new file, making sure the artboard dimensions will work with your image. Click on File > Place and place your image onto the artboard. You may need to resize it and adjust its position on the artboard. 

Step 2: Open the Image Trace Panel

Click on Window and select Image Trace. 

Step 3: Activate the Preview

Click on your image to activate the Image Trace panel. Check off Preview in the bottom left corner of the panel. This will show you what the traced result will look like with the default settings in place. From here, you can play around with the settings and settle on the look you want. 

Step 4: Explore the Presets (Optional) 

If you’re after a certain artistic look for your vectorized image, check out Illustrator’s presets. You can access these through a drop-down menu or the icons at the top of the Image Trace Panel. The options are: 

High Fidelity Photo / High Color turns virtually every instance of color into its own shape and creates a vector image that’s almost identical to the original. For example, tracing the flower photo using this preset results in a vector illustration with over 5000 colors. 

Low Fidelity Photo / Low Color achieves a similar effect, but in less detail. Vectorizing the flower photo with this setting would yield just over 600 colors. 

3 Colors, 6 Colors and 16 Colors simplify the illustration even further. The image will no longer look photorealistic, but they’re perfect if you want a more cartoon-like or posterized look. 

Auto-Color (icon only) automatically selects a fitting number of colors. 

Shades of Gray / Grayscale creates a grayscale vector image. You can play around with how many shades you want to use and how detailed you want the image to be. 

Black and White Logo / Black and White and Silhouettes use only two colors, so the resulting image is as simple as it can be. 

Sketched Art, Line Art / Outline and Technical Drawing turn the image into a set of black outlines and are best used for vectorizing sketches and drawings.

Step 5: Adjust the Settings 

Whether or not you’re using a preset, you can play around with the following settings to fine-tune your vectorized image:

Mode: Choose from Color, Grayscale or Black and White. 

Palette: In Color mode, these are general presets for the number of colors you want to use. Choose from Automatic, Full Tone and Limited, or select Document Library to use your own custom selection of colors. 

Threshold: In Black and White mode, this determines the point at which pixels are separated into black and white. 

Colors / Grays: In Color and Grayscale mode, this determines how many colors or shades of gray the vectorized image will include. 

In the Advanced section of the Image Trace panel, you can further modify:

Paths: This affects how accurately the paths follow the pixels in the image. A lower value means fewer anchor points and smoother, more simplified paths. 

Corners: A lower value here creates more rounded corners, while a higher value makes them sharper and more jagged. 

Noise: This is the minimum number of pixels an area needs to have in order to be included in the tracing. Moving the slider up increases this requirement and, therefore, ignores more areas, reducing noise and simplifying the resulting vector image. 

You can also simplify the image by checking off Simplify and adjusting the slider to include more or fewer anchor points. 

Step 6: Initiate the Trace Process 

Once you’re happy with the settings and the preview of what your vectorized image will look like, it’s time to trace it. The Trace button in the bottom right corner of the Image Trace panel should be grayed out. Uncheck Preview to re-activate it and click Trace to start the tracing process. Depending on the size of your image and the settings you’ve chosen, this can take a few moments. 

Step 7: Expand the Image 

At this point, Illustrator has traced the image but hasn’t yet converted it into a set of vectors. To do this, make sure your image is still selected, then head to Object > Expand and hit OK.

You’ll now see blue outlines depicting the different paths that make up your vector image. If you open up the Layers panel, you’ll see each of the individual paths.

Step 8: Make Edits (Optional) 

If you’d like to make edits to your vector image, you first need to ungroup the paths so you can access each one separately. Simply right-click on the image and select Ungroup. 

From here, you can treat your image just like any other illustration—edit, add or remove paths, resize and reposition them or even change up the colors. 

You can stay in Illustrator to do this—it has everything you need to manipulate your new vector image and turn it into a work of art. If you’re new to the program, be sure to familiarize yourself with Adobe Illustrator basics so you can make the most of its powerful tools. 

Step 9: Export the Vector File 

Go to File > Save to save your Illustrator file so you can access and edit it later. 

To share and access your scalable, editable vector image outside of Adobe Illustrator, you’ll need to save it as an SVG file. To do this, head to File > Save As and select SVG from the drop-down menu. 

Vectorize Images Like a Pro

Vectorizing allows you to take a static image, drawing or photo and turn it into a dynamic digital artwork that you can scale and edit as much as you’d like. It opens up a world of creative possibilities. 

Try it yourself—grab a pixel-based image and see what you get inspired to create!

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Written By

Sayana Lam

Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.

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