Adding real-life swatches to your design work adds elements of realism in what can be an oversaturated digital market.
Unfortunately, scanning or photographing texture swatches usually results in unscalable raster images that pixelate when overedited.
This ensures the highest quality which yields the best results.
Weve downloaded a photo of a watercolor swatch fromUnsplashto make into a vector.
Open your image in Photoshop and crop it close to the swatch you’re using.
If the image isnt already 300 DPI, it needs to be.
Go toImage>Image Sizeand type300into theResolutionbox.
Now youve got a high-quality image that will render into a detailed vector later.
you could alsochange the DPI in other programsif you’re not using Photoshop.
Step 2: Clean Up the Background
The swatch itself needs to be isolated from the background.
Create a new layer on the Layer palette, then drag it under your image layer.
grab the image layer.
Go toSelect>Color Range.
Select theeyedropperfrom the dialog box and use it to select any part of the background on your artboard.
Use theFuzzinessslider to ensure the selection is tight against your swatch.
Once back to the artboard, the color range area will have running ants to show the selection.
HitDeleteto remove the background.
Then deselect the selection by hittingCmd+D(Mac) orCtrl+D(Windows).
If your background is plain with no shadow or texture, thats all you have to do.
Deselect by hittingCmd+D(Mac) orCtrl+D(Windows).
Remove them with theEraser.
Remember to delete the rectangle before saving your image.
Once done, youll have an isolated paint swatch with a transparent background surrounding it.
secure your swatch as a PNG.
If you don’t have Photoshop, there are alternativeways to make an image background transparent.
you could then bring that image straight into Illustrator and carry on from here.
Step 3: bring up the Image in Illustrator
Open your new swatch PNG in Illustrator.
Although, it wont stay that way in the next step.
At this point, your swatch is still a raster, so it will pixelate if scaled.
Combining both Photoshop and Illustrator for one project is a great way to utilize Adobe Creative Cloud.
There are many otherfeatures across the Creative Cloudthat you might try.
Step 4: Vectorize the Image
pop fire up Properties panel by going toWindow>Properties.
you’re free to maximize or minimize the panel by selecting it from the right-hand vertical toolbar.
Select your image, then scroll to the bottom of thePropertiespanel and selectImage Trace>High Fidelity Photo.
it’s possible for you to use the Image Trace function in many ways tovectorize images in Illustrator.
UnderColor, move the slider to the right, somewhere between 85% and 98%.
This increases the details of the colors in your textured swatch, giving it a more realistic result.
Open theAdvancedsettings and move thePathsslider over to the right.
Again, setting this between 85% and 98% is ideal.
The more paths there are, the more detail is drawn in your vector.
If there are fewer paths, the image will look choppy and cartoon-like.
Minimize the Image Trace and Properties panels and your swatch will be covered in blue path lines.
But you might move individual paths, if needed, using theDirect Selectiontool.
Select theDirect Selectiontool (A) and click off your artboard to deselect the image.
Then snag the white background surrounding your swatch.
HitDeleteon your keyboard to bring back your transparent background.
you might add a colored rectangle under your swatch to check the transparency.
Step 6: Use Your Swatch Vector
Now you have a finished texture swatch.
Unfortunately, because of all the intricate paths, it would be difficultbut not impossibleto recolor your swatch.
To use the vector, you should keep the color the same.
you’re able to use your vector just like any other vector.
preserve your vector as a PNG to ensure it stays transparent.
See our guide tocreating transparent backgrounds in Illustratorfor more.
Refer back to this guide to turn real textures into digital vectors.
