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Auto trace needs to be much better than what Drawplus offers. There is no way to reduce the number of nodes (thousands!!!) detected. Affinity developers need to check how Illustrator does this (amazing results in converting raster to vector, especially the "Simple" & "Ignore White" options)! If Affinity Designer could do this, they could really move new and existing Adobe customers to this platform!

Auto trace needs to be much better than what Drawplus offers. There is no way to reduce the number of nodes (thousands!!!) detected. Affinity developers need to check how Illustrator does this (amazing results in converting raster to vector, especially the "Simple" & "Ignore White" options)! If Affinity Designer could do this, they could really move new and existing Adobe customers to this platform!

+1 for trace

trace functionality its a must. I vote on it.

Thanks Str2 for the pointer re: image vectoriser. £3.99 and it's a brilliant piece of kit - you get so much control over the tracing process. Highly recommend this for anyone looking for a way of tracing without involving illustrator.

Live trace is the one thing that is keeping me in Illustrator. That and the line width tool, though live trace is more important. I illustrate educational materials for children, and live trace enables me to convert a small-ish simple line illustration into something that can be used on a poster, in seconds. No trace, no deal! I am very much looking forward to being able to jump ship over to Affinity.

Live tracing is really neccessary if you want to maintain the look of analog hand lettering and logos. Here you can see how it's used and the workflow from paper to digital: 
 
youtube.com/watch?v=vlsaI3f0JYc
 
Like you can see in the vid, having advanced settings to adjust the tracing threshold is key for good results.
 
Hand lettering is going strong on sites like Instagram, having this feature would make Affinity attractive to a big chunk of people.

Posted 09 October 2015 - 10:56 PM
I think many of the posts here miss the way live trace is used mostly today - what's needed is a replacement for Illustrator's Live Trace tool. You'd never want to use this for photos as firstly illustrator isn't for this, and secondly if you want that effect you'd be better off using photoshop (posterise tool etc). The Live Trace tool is either likely to be used for tracing previous artwork when neither the vector file nor a lot of time is available. Secondly, and probably the biggest reason why Affinity NEEDS to include this tool, is for illustrators and designers scanning in their artwork. This includes people like my wife who illustrates childrens books, and all the designers out there doing hand drawn lettering, elements etc. We know that is almost everyone at the moment, and I'm really shocked this isn't seen as a bigger need. Until Affinity has a live trace feature I will still need Illustrator and I don't want to be using two programs. I'd rather jump ship when it can be a replacement, and that certainly isn't yet. 
    Me too here! When Affinity can trace I will buy, until then Ill keep using Illustrator and hold off on my el capitan upgrade…..Affinity we are waiting, Thanks for your work, J

I think many of the posts here miss the way live trace is used mostly today - what's needed is a replacement for Illustrator's Live Trace tool. You'd never want to use this for photos as firstly illustrator isn't for this, and secondly if you want that effect you'd be better off using photoshop (posterise tool etc). The Live Trace tool is either likely to be used for tracing previous artwork when neither the vector file nor a lot of time is available. Secondly, and probably the biggest reason why Affinity NEEDS to include this tool, is for illustrators and designers scanning in their artwork. This includes people like my wife who illustrates childrens books, and all the designers out there doing hand drawn lettering, elements etc. We know that is almost everyone at the moment, and I'm really shocked this isn't seen as a bigger need. Until Affinity has a live trace feature I will still need Illustrator and I don't want to be using two programs. I'd rather jump ship when it can be a replacement, and that certainly isn't yet. 

A tool to convert into SVG, based on tracing a bitmap image, would be very nice for me as well! So please count me in !

some form of auto tracing and conversion of raster to vector would be outstanding. I'd love to see a feature like that!