strposterize.pdf

Sometimes you want to make a photographic image

look very graphic with crisp, sharp edges

and high contrast colors. You can do

this by first posterizing it in

Adobe ® Photoshop, tracing

it in Adobe ® Streamline ® and then

editing and finessing the colors and

shapes in Adobe Illustrator.

This technique shows you how.

Luanne Seymour Cohen,

Creative Director at

Adobe Systems, Inc.,

shares a technique on

how to create cool

posterized images with

Adobe Streamline,

Adobe Photoshop and

Adobe Illustrator.

INTERMEDIATE

POSTERIZED IMAGES WITH STREAMLINE

1. Open the original image in

Photoshop. For best results, use

a higher resolution image. 300-

600 pixels per inch will give the

best results in Streamline.

2. To get the best results in

Streamline you must first

simplify the shapes in your

image using Photoshop. To do

this choose Image > Adjust >

Posterize. Play around with the

number of levels, and turn on

the Preview button to see the

results. Don’t worry about the

number you end up with, just

pick a number that gives you

the best shapes while still

maintaining detail.

Posterizing in

Photoshop

6 levels of posterization

means that Photoshop

will use 4 tonal values

in each channel. This

means that for a

3-channel RGB image,

you’ll end up with

4x4x4 colors or 64

colors.

3. Save the file with a new name.

You can save the file in TIFF,

TIFF compressed, PICT,

Photoshop, or Photoshop 2.0

format.

4. Switch to Streamline and

open the Photoshop file you

just saved. Choose Options >

Settings. Select one of the preset

Color settings. Don’t worry if

the number of colors is different

from what you want because we

will adjust that later.

5. Choose Options > Color/

B&W Setup. This is where you

will experiment with the

Maximum # of colors for your

posterization. Select the Add new

colors to custom color list. Select

Reduce detail. Deselect (for

photographic image) or select

Color averaging (for images

with large areas of color).

Streamline’s

posterization

Streamline creates a

graph of the image

color values (histo-

gram). Then it divides

the colors evenly into a

color palette that

contains the number

of colors selected in

the Color/B&W Setup

dialog.

Posterizing Images With Streamline

6. Click the Preview button to

see how the image’s color

shapes will be divided up. Keep

trying different numbers of

colors and complexity levels,

(don’t forget to click Preview),

until you are satisfied with the

shapes and level of detail in the

preview. The actual colors can

be changed later in Illustrator.

Experimentation

pays off

In the image at the left,

I tried several different

color settings starting

with 6 colors. I found

that 16 was the

minimum number I

needed to retain the

detail in the ﬂower

centers. Anything less

and the detail I wanted

was lost.

7. Choose Options >

Conversion Setup. Choose

Outline for a photographic

image. If your image has a lot of

noise correct it by increasing

the Noise Suppression slider. If

your image has straight and

curved lines, make that

selection also.

Noise Suppression

Pixel areas with a

diameter measuring

the number of pixels

selected in the Noise

Suppression setting are

ignored during

conversion.

8. Because you’ve changed some

of the specifications, Streamline

has given your settings a new

name. You can change it in the

Settings dialog if you want, then

click Create.

Naming Settings

If you make a change

to either the Conversion

Setup or Color/B&W

Setup after you have

saved your settings you

will need to resave the

new settings with a

different name.

Posterizing Images With Streamline

9. Once your settings are

adjusted, you are ready to

autotrace the image. Choose

File > Convert and Streamline

will begin the autotrace process.

When the tracing is complete,

choose File > Save Art As and

save in Adobe Illustrator

format. Streamline will add or

replace a suffix of .ai to the file

name.

Smoothing paths

If the shapes that

Streamline created are

too complex or have

too many anchor

points, use the Smooth

Path feature. Select the

path or paths that

need simplifying.

Choose Edit > Smooth

Path. Choose Minimum,

Medium or Maximum.

10. Open the .ai file in Illustrator.

Choose Window > Show

Swatches and view by Name.

Notice that there are now

several new spot colors at the

bottom of the Swatches palette.

They are named “Auto Color”

followed by a number.

Auto Colors

The colors created by

Streamline are named

“Auto Color” and are

spot colors in

Illustrator.

11. To adjust or change a color,

double click on an Auto Color

in the Swatches palette. Move

the Swatch Options dialog so

you can see the image. Adjust

the sliders to the desired color.

The artwork will update in the

window so you can preview the

new color change. Click OK.

Posterizing Images With Streamline

12. To adjust the tone of a spot

color, select its name in the

Swatches palette and move the

slider in the Color palette. The

new tonal value of the auto

color can then be dragged to

the Swatches palette. The added

swatch will retain the original

color name and have a percent-

age after it. You can then make a

selection in your artwork and

target the tonal color.

13. To clean up your file you

may want to remove unwanted

shapes, breakup complex paths

or remove points from a path.

To clean up shapes, zoom in on

that area. Depending on the

complexity of the image you

traced, you might have some

unwanted lumps and bumps in

some of the paths. Use the

delete anchor point tool, the

scissors tool and/or the knife

tool to simplify and split up

paths.

14. Once you’ve removed or

simplified the really complex

paths, you’re done. In the image

at the right, I added a gradient

and a stroke to the background

shape. This adds visual depth to

the image.

Adobe, the Adobe logo,

Photoshop, Illustrator, and

Streamline are trademarks of

Adobe Systems, Incorporated.

Incorporated. All rights

reser ved.

Photography: PhotoDisc

Posterizing Images With Streamline

PS4.0, SL4.0, AI7.0

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