Auto-Tracing with Silhouette

There are some tricks and tips I can convey to you that will reveal
some of the versatility of auto-tracing.

1) If you are going to trace several objects of similar type, such
as a character set, auto-trace just a few at first to give yourself
a chance to select the best parameters for auto-tracing.

2) Auto-tracing is done by following the outline of an object. Objects
that have been produced by scanner often have flaws from image noise.
Spruce up the image first with the pixel editor and other drawing
tools.

3) For objects that have closely spaced edges (outlines), inverting
the image from black to white (visa versa) will help separate the
outlines and allow the auto-tracing routines distinguish between
outlines. The trace will not go astray.

4) Very small objects are best traced with the TRACE SIMPLE option.
TRACE SIMPLE (RAW) produces the un-processed auto-trace. Every pixel
point of the bit-image outline remains defined in the auto-trace.

5) I find that Auto-tracing with BREAK POINT OUTPUT produces the best 
results. One can take the trace and quickly edit it and convert each
curve to a type of spline as you go.

6) As you manually edit auto-trace curves, one can force a corner
point to remain sharp after conversion to a spline by adding two
extra points atop the corner point.

7) If you have elliptical objects auto-traced, you can fit an
ellipse to the object and then convert the ellipse to a bezier
curve.

8) Set your fill patterns once everything is done. Redraws are
slowed down when a fill pattern is involved.

9) To increase the number of points that are saved as control points
in the auto-trace, increase either of the parameters made available
in the auto-tracing option box. The curve parameter, when increased
makes the auto-trace routine more sensitive to milder curves. The
Line parameter when increased will make the auto-trace more sensitive
to small straight lines. Increasing either factor will increase
the total number of points that will define the auto-trace of the
image.


