Downsizing images

[dsummers]

Hi,

I have developed an image that is 200px x 200px and has quite a basic
design.

I require a 200px square and 50px square version of the image.

When i resize the image down to 50px it seems to loose alot of quality.
Is there anyway around this in Photoshop?

I have been told im better off drawing the image as a vector but have
never done this before.

Can vectors be drawn in Photoshop? If not which program would you
recommend and are there any tutorial you know of that i could use?

Thanks

Darren.

[thepr...@gmail.com]

Photoshop can make vectors, and to do so use the pen tools. They work
well enough, although Illustrator does specialize in this.

What I'd reccomend is getting Illustrator CS2 and using it's livetrace
feature. It will automatically vectorize raster images, and if your
image is pretty simple I think you'll get good results. There are a few
parameters you'll have to tweak, but afterwards you'll have a version
of your image that you can scale and keep at the same quality.

Here are a few tutorials I've found that may be helpful, but I don't
have the time to read all of them. Post back which ones you think are
best.

Livetrace:
http://www.adobe.com.au/products/illustrator/newfeatures.html
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/illustrator/ss/sflivetrace.htm
http://www.2badmicedesign.com/learning/liveeffects/index.htm
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/22807.html

Photoshop vectors:
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/photoshop_vectors
http://www.cuyamaca.net/WebDevFAQs/photoshop7/vectors/default.htm
http://siftw.pinnacle-elite.com/vtut/basic.html

Good luck!

-Prestron