For publishers in Portland, Oregon

Return of the Clip Art

Back in February, I needed help changing 200 dpi clip art to print-quality 300 dpi for a friend's book. (See "Clip Art Angst," on 2/3/08.) Cliff came to my aid, suggesting the trace feature of Adobe Illustrator and also a program that he found online.

Cliff, I owe you one! I went with Illustrator, as it is something that I already have. I used the "Live Trace" feature to trace the art and save it at 300 dpi. It worked! Of the 165 images I had to convert, I'd say no more than 5 of them came out really poorly (indistinguishable or just weird looking). The rest looked satisfactory to good to great.

Mind you, I'm nervous about how these will come out in the finished book! But I was able to come to the aid of a friend and client, use Illustrator (for the first time), and learn some crucial design technology. So I'm pleased. And my friend--she is just thrilled.

Thanks, Cliff!