I have Illustrator CS2.

There should be a tracing option in there Marque. It's not perfect and it may take a couple tweaks and tries, but you should be able to get something so long as the clipart isn't too detailed.

I don't have Illustrator CS2 personally, but I did use it for work and if I'm not mistaken Adobe merged Adobe Streamline into Illustrator.

Laurie

Marque,

It is called Live Trace, here is a tutorial over how to use it,

"Using the New Live Trace Feature in Illustrator CS2"
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/illustrator/ss/sflivetrace_2.htm

Don't try everything at once. Divide you artwork into areas. Stitch together everthing in the end!

Livetrace is Ok if you don't need anything too precise. Otherwise patience and pen tool are your best friends!

I reckon users could also try path tool in APS. however, vectormagic converts clip-art to scalable vector eps file just by clicking a few buttons.  I don't have illustrator, but sorry to hear it's necessary to create paths like that, to convert a jpeg to vector img.  I draw toons using APS path tool, but it's slower than clicking a few buttons.

Vectormagic has had this service for a long time now. In the beginning it was free. Now you can even buy their program. It comes with a cavat though.

If you trace by hand you get a small and light-weight file that is easely editable.
With Vectormagigic you get a LARGE and CLUMSY file that are so complex that it is in princip uneditable.

Vectormagic does not use any of the advanced techiques in Illustrator for instance like you can see here,

smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/21/creativity-spark-from-masters-of-graphic-design/

In other words, the usual difference between hand-made quality and machine-automation. You cant do anything with it except print it out. And even that can be a problem.

I actually own Illustrator, just need to get around to learning it. Just needed a fast alternative to do some things right now. Will be learning Illustrator over the summer. Thanks for the link vintorix!

Corel Draw has Corel Trace that is supposed to let you make a vector image out a photograph.  At least that is what they showed in the promo.  I picked up a copy for $99.

Although Adobe doesn't support Streamline anymore perhaps you can find the package for very cheap on the Internet. Streamline 4 was Adobe's answer to down and dirty raster to vector convertion for a while back in the day.

I had an issue like this at work and one of my coworkers showed me how to use flash to vectorize a drawing in ways illustrator couldn't.  I have no idea what he did but it worked.  FYI a solution exists.

I hate illustrator...

I have streamline somewhere, but don't know if I can find it...lol
That was a while back.

Illustrator does a crappy trace

CorelDraw does a pretty good job of vectorizing.

Flash does an  amazing job if you get trace bitmap settings right.
File > Import > Import to stage
Modify > Bitmap > Trace Bitmap
File > Export > to an Illustrator .ai file

Open both photoshop and illustrator. In Photoshop, either trace the different colors with the pen tool(lots more control than illustrator), or use select by color then transform the selection to a path(less accurate). Once you have a path you can select the whole path, Edit / Copy then paste the path into Illustrator. then add color and or stroke in illustrator.