Crisp clean lines?

[Millie&Otis]

I've spent the last two days searching the forum trying to figure this out myself with no avail. I scanned a simple hand drawn out line and used the line/curve tool to trace around it. I thought this would make nice clean lines but it didn't exactly. I tried a number of blurring, outlining and feathering techniques and still haven't gotten the right results. My goal is to use this picture on cafepress so I'd like the lines to be near perfect. Any suggestions?

This is what I've come up with so far. If you can't tell the dog's back is particularly fuzzy.

[Crimson]

That's quite clean already. If you are looking for even softer lines, I suggest you use a larger resolution while tracing. Also, I think a vector graphics editor would do a better job, such as Adobe Illustrator (expensive) or Inkscape (free).

[Millie&Otis]

That's quite clean already. If you are looking for even softer lines, I suggest you use a larger resolution while tracing. Also, I think a vector graphics editor would do a better job, such as Adobe Illustrator (expensive) or Inkscape (free).

I'll try the larger resolution. I downloaded Inkscape last week and made little progress. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Myrddin]

Your lines are perfect. You have to remember that your screen displays the image upon it as pixels, minute squares, so even with the smoothest of lines it will still look as though there is jittering when there is actually not. This is exposed further with small images where the lines are thinner.

If you were to submit that, it will be fine and dandy. Alternatively, you can spend the next few days sending yourself stern crazy trying to rectify the impossible .

I would, though, also suggest Inkscape. It handles line drawing far better, and with the resizing benefits of the vector format, be easier to work with if you require the image for larger sizes than the original drawing. You can also export the final product as a PNG.