Good vector tracer or Vectorizer

[albertkinng]

I bought all the most usable vectorizers for Mac out there, so you don't need to and in my experience (working with complex raster pictures to vectorize) I can positively tell you with confidence that the more powerful yet to achieve that goal is one app not many people take seriously. The app is called Logoist, and it's the most versatile and powerful vectorize tool in the market for Mac. Be confident that Logoist will be powerful enough to get you the best SVG output. The manual editing after export is minimal.

[v_kyr]

Well Logoist is a graphics program and contains Vectorize!, the later is a standalone vectorizer and thus overall much cheaper here, so I wonder why you don't recommend that instead?

Quote

I bought all the most usable vectorizers for Mac out there, so you don't need to and in my experience (working with complex raster pictures to vectorize) I can positively tell you with confidence that the more powerful yet to achieve that goal is one app not many people take seriously.

Honestly there are still better ones, in recognizing detail and also in terms of correct color quantisation here. - Compare in your shown result the womans face details (eye, earing, hair color...), flowers and shrubbery details, colors ... etc. with this here ...

 

The above is done with Vector Magic, which is still (algorithmic) one of the best tracing apps here! - It has just one little flaw (... which Logoist & Vectorize!, and most others have too here), namely that it sadly doesn't support centerline tracing, which is often needed in vectorization too.

[albertkinng]

3 hours ago, v_kyr said:

The above is done with Vector Magic

I was recommending an affordable option capable of doing tracing in a very usable and productive way. 300 dollars for one trick pony is unacceptable and asking $10 monthly is why I ended up here buying Affinity instead of Adobe. Regarding the accuracy of the vector result, I was honest when I said "The manual editing after export is minimal." Acknowledging that you in fact will need to work around the result. 

Thanks for pointing out Vectorize! App (by the same developer of Logoist) I didn't recommend it for a reason. When using Logoist you get better results than with Vectorize! Why? I really can't answer that one, I just can tell you the results aren't that good.

Remember this is a forum for resources, so if you find something you think the community should know, share it here; if it's not for you then life goes on. I thought it was good to share for the great quality and the price. Have a good one, mate.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, albertkinng said:

... Regarding the accuracy of the vector result, I was honest when I said "The manual editing after export is minimal." Acknowledging that you in fact will need to work around the result. 

Yes 300 bucks is a bunch and probably much too much here for casual users, even that tracer gives outstanding good results. - You need to spend some work with most tracing tools, often some pre- and post works are needed in order to get the best possible results from an individual tracing tool here.

1 hour ago, albertkinng said:

Thanks for pointing out Vectorize! App (by the same developer of Logoist) I didn't recommend it for a reason. When using Logoist you get better results than with Vectorize! Why? I really can't answer that one, I just can tell you the results aren't that good.

Hmm strange that they don't offer the same/similar results here, as the compony there states that it is so to say already build in there in Logoist. But maybe they enhanced or optimized it further for that graphics app. - I recall that I've once tried out Vectorize! on an iPad and that was Ok there, it did what it should. Though in the end I used instead Vector Q there.

1 hour ago, albertkinng said:

I thought it was good to share for the great quality and the price.

Yes it is, the more options people overall have the better, especially if things are freeware or low cost here!

Here's the medal ...

• Medaille.afdesign
• Medaille_transp_background.afdesign

[albertkinng]

Here are powerful online alternatives: (FREE OF CHARGE)

https://svgco.de/

https://svgstorm.com/app

https://www.visioncortex.org/vtracer/

[v_kyr]

Most of common online tracers (also some which do support centerline tracing too) are already listed here ...

 

[albertkinng]

Please add those to your list! 

[v_kyr]

BTW, Inkscape's tracer (which is free software) also does a good job here. IMO better than Logoist here.

 

[albertkinng]

8 hours ago, v_kyr said:

better than Logoist here

Indeed. I was playing around with Inkscape and I need to point out is not that easy to use. First time I feel lost on a Vector App. Very confusing. 

[v_kyr]

59 minutes ago, albertkinng said:

First time I feel lost on a Vector App. Very confusing.

Yes, as said privately before Inkscape's GUI takes a lot of getting used to. Thus one has to spend some time with it in order to get used to it.

[albertkinng]

40 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

as said privately before

One thing is saying and other is trying. I didn’t thought it was going to be that hard! SMH

[sbgraphic]

Thanks for sharing this post and comments, very useful.

Two years ago, I was looking for an alternative to my old AI CS6 in a way to convert in a batch some linear graphics backgrounds.

InkScape was used at first, but then I end up with Potrace (installed with macports) and used it with some "simple" terminal commands.
It was a compromise and the image source was very different from your exemple (multiples lines, black on white, white background) but i wanted the 'centerline autotrace' command for later editing purpose and it has it). The configuration was not that simple (lot's of tests, etc.) but a the end it was quite fast to convert and the result was what I was looking for.

[albertkinng]

3 hours ago, sbgraphic said:

I end up with Potrace (installed with macports)

I was able to install Potrace to see what you mean, however I can't find that app after installation. Maybe it works just with terminal? Let me know how this Potrace works, so I can be sure I didn't miss anything.

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, albertkinng said:

I was able to install Potrace to see what you mean, however I can't find that app after installation. Maybe it works just with terminal? Let me know how this Potrace works, so I can be sure I didn't miss anything.

Potrace is a command-line tool, as described in its documentation. So yes, you would run it from Terminal.

If you want a graphical interface, do a web search for potrace gui or (I think) Inkscape.

[albertkinng]

On 2/18/2023 at 9:39 AM, v_kyr said:

Inkscape's tracer

I downloaded Inkscape and I don't get the results you have there, even with a simple image. If you have time, please throw some tips here to achieve that amazing result you were able to get.

[albertkinng]

51 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Potrace is a command-line tool

Thanks for the info! Appreciated.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, albertkinng said:

If you have time, please throw some tips here to achieve that amazing result you were able to get.

Your initial bimap/pixel image looks slightly blurry (unsharp), optimize that before tracing. - I used some plain settings when tracing via Inkscape, namely ...

... though your Inkscape version looks more modern as what I have running here (mine is older) and thus it might have been slightly reworked in the meantime. - Try to apply settings like I used.

[tinvin kel]

Try svgconverter.app. It offers free online image tracing. You can convert raster to svg, ai, eps, and pdf.

Also svgstorm.com is now svgconverter.app