I read a number of topics that include all different autotrace additions. Which one is currently going to make the best results for me?

I have JPG scans of black and white art, no greys needed. I can also make TIFF if that matters. I want a simple B&W EPS file.

I sent some of my traces made like this: open > embed > path > trace bitmap > brightness steps 2

save as EPS and had varied results. Opening them in Illustrator when I used simple selections 2 scans, she saw this: You need to learn how to REMOVE THE RASTER from the file in Inkscape BEFORE YOU SAVE IT AS EPS

Says the file opens with two copies of the vector image and one raster layer. What am I doing wrong? I'd like to have one layer of vector as EPS.

Maybe this...

Opening them in Illustrator when I used simple selections 2 scans, she saw this: You need to learn how to REMOVE THE RASTER from the file in Inkscape BEFORE YOU SAVE IT AS EPS

"learn how to remove" ?? Makes it sound like some complicated routine -- I wonder why it doesn't just say "delete" ? But more than that -- someone saw an error message in Adobe Illustrator, which specifically references Inkscape? I find that odd....especially for a proprietary program.

I seem to recall that EPS files can contain both raster and vector contents. So I'm not sure why Illustrator can't handle the raster image being in the file.

Says the file opens with two copies of the vector image and one raster layer. What am I doing wrong? I'd like to have one layer of vector as EPS.

Yes, that's exactly what we would expect, from the steps you described. According to the reported error message, which says that the raster image should be removed, then....well, I guess deleting the imported raster image would be foolproof. I'd probably try moving the raster image to a new layer and hiding it, to try and keep the raster image together with the file. But if Illustrator doesn't accept it, I guess you'll just have to delete it.