Image Tracing in Affinity Designer?

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, markinca said:

Interestingly, the conversion website uses a free open source utility called Potrace. I wonder if the AD devs would bring that into the program and save dev time while adding native image tracing capabilities?

No they can't for Potrace due to strict GPL license restrictions here, they would have to buy a commercial license for reusing it in a commercial software product.

Quote

Dual licensing program

A non-GPL version of Potrace, called Potrace Professional(TM), is available for integration into proprietary software. Licenses are available from my company, Icosasoft Software Inc. If you wish to purchase a license, or for more information, please write to licensing@icosasoft.ca.

The other services and free tools which make use of Potrace or AutoTrace usually use the GPL license variant, or maybe might have bought a non-GPL version of Potrace.

Further Potrace initially supports just black & white tracing and no color tracing, it also initially doesn't support centerline tracing. But Autotrace supports the later two things here. So a combination of both (like Inkscape uses and which enhanced those) would be good to have then here.

However, if I will find the spare free time, I can offer my refactored and slightly enhanced to nowadays Java building support versions of Delineate. Delineate is a Java based (and thus portable between Win/Mac) GUI-Frontend tool which makes use of the Potrace & AutoTrace CLI command line tools.

I've recently adapted, slightly enhanced and rebuild this tracing solution trio (Potrace/Autotrace and Delineate) and all their library dependencies for actual Mac/Win versions. Maybe (though I have to ask @Patrick Connor first, if he gives green light for this step) if it's Ok, I can provide these for the Affinity community as some forum resources addition then.

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

if it's Ok, I can provide these for the Affinity community as some forum resources addition then.

Seems like a useful free resource to me, sure 

[ashf]

There're other nice images tracer that's affordable

Vector Q
Mac
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vector-queue/id1448103717
iOS
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vector-q-by-imaengine/id599309610

Vectorize!(Mac&iOS)
https://www.syniumsoftware.com/vectorize

DragProtrace - already mentioned earlier in this thread is still being maintained and runs on Big Sur unlike other Protrace GUI apps
http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/sato-akira/dragpotrace/

[v_kyr]

28 minutes ago, ashf said:

There're other nice images tracer that's affordable

Yes there are recently some newcomer tools in this area, but most of them need a MacOS version >= 10.13 and thus wouldn't be usable on older MacOS systems. - Some of them are now MacOS takeovers of previous plain iOS versions.

[ashf]

2 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Yes there are recently some newcomer tools in this area, but most of them need a MacOS version >= 10.13 and thus wouldn't be usable on older MacOS systems. - Some of them are now MacOS takeovers of previous plain iOS versions.

Agree, Catalyst apps are little inconvenient since it requires newer macOS.

But I tried Vector Q on my iPhone and it's decent.
Unlike Adobe Capture, there are some adjustable parameter and app itself has vector editing features.
Good alternative to Adobe Capture if it doesn't work for what you need.
 

[v_kyr]

34 minutes ago, ashf said:

But I tried Vector Q on my iPhone and it's decent.

It was one of the first tracing capable apps for iOS, formerly better known as Imaengine then instead of Vector Q!

[Itacolomi]

[FOR MAC USER ONLY] I'm a graphic designer for 33 years and i recently happily switched from Adobe to Affinity. I also had to look for alternative as few functions are definitively missing in Designer. If you need a free powerful solution for auto-trace from pixel to vector, have a look at Vectornator. It's a pretty awesome free software with an easy to use auto-trace feature…

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Itacolomi How do you get auto-trace artwork from Vectornator into Affinity Designer? Can you cut and paste the artwork? Would it be better to export a PDF or SVG first?

[Itacolomi]

Indeed, PDF or SVG export are both good options as far as they keep the vector outline. Depending on what you want, you can try one or the other. Sometimes the SVG export makes weird traces if the file is complex.

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@Itacolomi I understand you can also export .AI files from Vectornator. In your experience which exported file format is best for importation into Affinity Designer in terms of preserving layers and vector shapes: PDF, SVG, or AI?

[Itacolomi]

The ".ai export" is only available on the Ipad - iOs version - of Vectornator. The MacOs version can export as JPEG/PNG/SVG/PDF as you can see (sorry in French!) in the enclosed screen capture. Both SVG and PDF are good, depending on the complexity of the file. An SVG export will keep all the layers in Designer. It will be flattened in PDF. What i usually do is to auto-trace in Vectornator then export the trace to AF Designer to work on it. The same job could be done in Vectornator but it's not the point in a forum about Affinity Designer It's lightning fast on both side on a M1 Mac!

[Fixx]

On 4/8/2021 at 11:26 AM, Itacolomi said:

[FOR MAC USER ONLY] I'm a graphic designer for 33 years and i recently happily switched from Adobe to Affinity. I also had to look for alternative as few functions are definitively missing in Designer. If you need a free powerful solution for auto-trace from pixel to vector, have a look at Vectornator. It's a pretty awesome free software with an easy to use auto-trace feature…

Requires macOS 11.0 or later.

[Bay]

I'm new to Affinity. I've read all of the posts in this forum but I am still left with a question.

What are the hurdles Affinity is trying to overcome in order to bring the tracing feature to a future update?  Why would it take so long (not rhetorical).

PLEASE ADD TRACING TO AFFINITY DESIGNER!

 

Thank you!

[walt.farrell]

46 minutes ago, Bay said:

Why would it take so long (not rhetorical).

Possibly there are technical issues, but possibly it's just a matter of setting priorities for all the work that they want to do, and determining what they consider important in their vision of what they want the applications to do.