Hello all, 
Is there any easy way or  plugin to turn pictures (bitmap images) drawn in Photoshop or Painter into vector graphics that are resolution-independent (that can be scaled to any size and printed out at any resolution without pixelation or losing its details and clarity ?

Thank you in advance!   Your advice is much appreciated!

Ilustrator can do that. Once upon a time there was a separate program called Streamline but I believe most of it if not all was integrated into the current Illustrator.

To the best of my knowledge, PS does not have that function.

In PS you can either make path manualy, which is on complex models tedious. Or Make normal selection and convert it to path in Path palette, but that is not precise with complex models.

In FreeHand just like in Illustrator you have trace tool, but for good results you need some experimenting.

Tihomir

Thank you Tihomir and Drakontas for the feedback.  

But do you mean in Illustrator we still have to trace the images?

Is there any filter (in Illustrator) or plugin that can accomplish the task with just a couple of clicks?

Thanks!

You have trace tool in Illustrator and FreeHand. You just need to marque select the area you want to trace. But it needs some experimenting with seting to get it just right :)

Check  www.About.com, there is lots of stuf for PS. Maybe you`ll find link, or just type trace plug-ins in google :)

Tihomir

jwebster45206 has two tutorials that use the Live Trace tool:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=1183 and
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=1552

Illustrator Help keywords:
Live trace
About tracing artwork
Tracing Presets And Options

That 2nd html has it's uses .. nice! Some filters available for renders and such which make them a bit more cartoon or anime style.. a reduced pallete of colours (less blending of tones) could help the vector conversion along... sometimes it looks a bit better than the "posterize" filter... btw if you have Macromedia Flah i think it can do some crude conversions of bitmap files to vector ones. http://www.algolab.com/Samp_Cnv/Pvf.htm ? a sample of what vector images can look like.. "http://basangpanaginip.blogspot.com/2006/07/worlds-most-photorealistic-vector-art.html" this would be done in illustrator with reference i think...

I use Corel Draw Power Trace. The difference between a good conversion from Raster to Vector is a very high quality Raster image.  However, your vector is not going to look like your raster image. The subtle tonality is lost in conversion from raster to vector.  

In future, you might consider the SVG format of Scalable Vector Graphics such as Inkscape.

http://www.svg.org/