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Here is the list of best free software to convert raster to vector for free. These software follow various procedures for raster to vector conversion, and are different from each other. The process of raster to vector conversion includes tracing the contents of raster images using edge detection. Aug 29, 2018 - I feel WiseImage is the best raster to vector conversion and raster editing software ever. We had used WiseImage for one of the Project where.
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Best FREE raster to vector conversion software...????
Hi all,
As the title says, any thoughts on the best free raster to vector conversion software?
Raster to vector is something I need maybe once every couple years so buying a package isn't what I want to do. If it was very inexpensive, I might consider buying.
I did buy a $400 package a number of years ago. It just wasn't very good, I think the conversion algorithms are better now though.
Any ideas? - Titanium
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For free - Potrace.
This is the raster to vector program used in Inkscape. It will trace the edges of an image, but you will need to use another program (Inkscape?) for any editing. The larger the original image the better the result. Traced images tend to be a little ragged looking up close. - Diamond
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Scott,
Thanks for the reply. I looked at the programs you mentioned, I just couldn't figure them out. They didn't seem as user friendly as I want.
I may solved my problem though, Serif's Draw plus X4 that I have may do it. - Titanium
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Free they are. User friendly they are not. This is pretty typical for much of the free stuff, they tend to be a bit clunky and take a while to learn. The commercial software is written by people being paid full time to write it. That is why they can (usually) justify the prices they charge.
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- Diamond
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Originally Posted by <jbc>I went back to have another look at Inkscape. It's actually pretty good, much better than the other free one's I tried. Actually, better than some of the for-pay versions. - Plastic
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I have been very happy with Win Topo.
It is freeware.
It does a great job of converting raster to dxf. - Aluminum
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Another very happy Inkscape user here. I do not use it for much, but it is a program that works very well for what I need it do to, after I learned the basics after reading/watching a few online tutorials. And free!
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I farted around with Inkscape and a bunch of others, and pretty much came to the conclusion that shopping the bargain bin software for an older copy of CorelDraw was the way to go. Still have not though.
At the time, I was trying to convert a couple specific raster's to a vector that I could clean up and import to engrave, and was able to get all I needed done on the free 30 day trial of the CorelDraw X-whatever package that was out at the time. Downloaded it, used it for a couple weeks, have not needed it since, so all is well and it was cheap enough!
Cheers
Trev - Diamond
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I've been playing with a few raster to vector programs since I stared this thread, mostly Serif Draw Plus ($99)and Inkscape (free, open source). Both these programs are graphic design programs so they do a lot more than conversions. I can get about equivalent vector files out of both programs. It isn't a straight forward process though . Depending on the image, conversion parameters need to be adjusted to suit the image type which takes some understanding of the conversion process.
I found a nice library of free downloadable clip art to play/learn with at the link below.
Clipart - High Quality, Easy to Use, Free Support
That site also has an image editor to manipulate the stock images prior to downloading.
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The following tables contain general and technical information about a number of raster-to-vector conversion software products. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.
- 1General information
General information[edit]
This table gives basic general information about the different vector graphics editors:
Creator | Released | Latest version | List price (USD) | License | Supported OS (without emulation) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adobe Streamline | Adobe Systems | 1989 | 4.0 | discontinued | Proprietary | |
CorelDRAW | Corel | 1989 | 2017 | $449, $169 upgrade | Proprietary | Windows |
Easy Trace | Easy Trace Group | 2015 | 9.8 | 960 Euro, 480 Euro upgrade | Proprietary | Windows |
Macromedia FreeHand | Macromedia | 1988 | 11.0.2 discontinued (MX) | $399, $99 upgrade | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
Adobe Illustrator | Adobe Systems | 1985 | 21.0.0 (CC2017) | $19.99 per month | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
Graphic Tracer Professional | GraphicPowers.com | 2016 | release 5 | $15 per month/ $120 per year | Proprietary | Windows, macOS due fall 2017 |
Inkscape (using Potrace) | Inkscape.org | 2003 | 0.92 | free | GPL | Windows, macOS, Linux |
ImageTracer | András Jankovics | 2015 | 1.2.5 | free | Public domain | Cross-platform , JavaScript or Java based |
MagicTracer | Elgorithms | 2003 | 2.0.012 | $59 | Proprietary | Windows |
Potrace | Peter Selinger | 2001 | 1.15 (Aug. 2017) | free | GPL | Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, AmigaOS/AROS |
Scan2CAD | Avia Systems | 1997 | v10 | $49 - $149 /month | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
WinTopo Freeware | SoftSoft Ltd | 1999 | 2015 (v1.76) | free | Freeware | Windows |
WinTopo Pro | SoftSoft Ltd | 2000 | 2015 (v3.6) | $299 | Proprietary | Windows |
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer | Xara Group Ltd. | 1994 | 2014 (v10) | $89.99 | Proprietary | Windows |
Super Vectorizer | Effectmatrix Ltd. | 2013 | 2016 (v1.6.6) | $29.99 | Proprietary | macOS |
Creator | Released | Latest version | List price (USD) | License | Supported OS (without emulation) |
Basic features[edit]
NAME | Maximum zoom | Object limit per document | Control point limit | Color management for print | Thumbnails | Adjust Image (functions) | Text Recognition (OCR) | Scripting support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy Trace | 12800x | No Limit | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
FreeHand | 64x | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | No | Yes |
Graphic Tracer Professional | No limit | No limit | No limit | No | ? | ? | Yes | No |
Illustrator | 640x | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | Yes |
Potrace | N/A | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | No | No |
ImageTracer[1] | N/A | No limit | No limit | No | No | ? | No | Yes |
Scan2CAD | 64K | No limit | No limit | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
WinTopo Pro[2] | 512x | No limit | No limit | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Maximum zoom | Object limit per document | Control point limit | Color management for print | Thumbnails | adjust image (functions) | Text Recognition (OCR) | Scripting support |
AutoCAD features[edit]
NAME | Export universal DXF | inside AutoCAD application available | Curve recognition | Circle recognition | Arc recognition | Orthogonal line detection | Corner detection | Line connection |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy Trace | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FreeHand | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Graphic Tracer Professional | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Illustrator | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Potrace | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
ImageTracer | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Scan2CAD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinTopo Pro | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Export universal DXF | inside AutoCAD application available | Curve recognition | Circle recognition | Arc recognition | Orthogonal line detection | Corner detection | Line connection |
Raster editing features[edit]
Scanner support | Freehand sketch | Raster filters | Change color depth | Image resize | Rotate | Crop | Raster shapes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy Trace | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FreeHand | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Graphic Tracer Professional | Yes | Yes | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes | No | N/A |
Illustrator | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Potrace | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
ImageTracer | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Scan2CAD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinTopo Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Scanner Support | Freehand sketch | Raster Filters | Change color depth | Image resize | Rotate | Crop | Raster Shapes |
Vector editing features[edit]
Fills & hatch | Vector combine | Rotate & move | Polylines | Spline curves | Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa | Vector shapes | Font ID & replace | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy Trace | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
FreeHand | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Graphic Tracer Professional | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Illustrator | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Potrace | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
ImageTracer | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
Scan2CAD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
WinTopo Pro | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
Fills & hatch | Vector combine | Rotate & move | Polylines | Spline curves | Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa | Vector shapes |
Free software[edit]
- Inkscape – conversion and creation tool (uses Potrace for raster-to-vector conversion)
- librsvg – library used in GNOME, rsvg-convert, rsvg-view, and MediaWiki
- Potrace – cross-platform utility for tracing a bitmap into a smooth, scalable image
- ImageTracer – Public Domain cross-platform raster image to SVG tracing in JavaScript or Java[3]
- Xara Xtreme for Linux – old 2006 open source variant of Xara Photo & Graphic Designer
Proprietary software[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Graphical software. |
- Graphic Tracer Professional
- WinTopo Freeware - Free to use for any purpose including commercial[4]
- WinTopo Pro
References[edit]
- ^https://github.com/jankovicsandras
- ^http://www.wintopo.com/features.htm
- ^https://github.com/jankovicsandras/imagetracerjs/blob/master/LICENSE
- ^http://www.wintopo.com/faq.htm
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