Illustrator Vector File Creation

Creating vector files with Illustrator from raster images is extremely simple and has many benefits to you doing so. The first benefit being that its a vector file, this means its entirely scalable and wont lose quality over how big or small make you it. It also wont become pixelated if you blow it up to a large size. Another advantage is that the file is directly editable when opened in a vector graphics program but mainly Adobe Illustrator because that's the leading program designed for vector creation in the industry.

Now i will explain how vector files are created from raster images. To start you must first paste in your image you want to create a vector out of.

Here I have pasted in the image i want to create a vector out of and pasted it onto a blank canvas ready for turning into a vector.


To select the image, just click on the image and it should become selected to and be ready to create.

Now that your image is selected, head to the toolbar at the top of Illustrator and you should see a button called "Image Trace" clicking this button will change your image into a default black and white vector based on its lighting.

This is how our image looks right now:

Whilst this looks nice as it is, it has no colour and for that reason is no good for my work. If you like how your image looks in black and white though, feel free to keep it and click the "Expand" button next to the "Image Trace" button and your image should now be made up of anchor points and paths.


If you don't like how your image looks you can select from a range of different styles in which your vector will be created. Down below i have compiled and shown off a few different styles in which your vector can look like.