Updated October 14, 2026. Written for VectorCraft 0.10.0 (what changed since).
Steps
- Open the editor and choose File › Open…, then pick the
.epsfile. Dragging it onto the window works too. The artboard takes the EPS's page, which is usually the artwork's bounding box. - If an import message appears, read it: it names anything the interpreter left out.
- Choose View › Outline to see the paths without their colours. Thin outlines around every shape mean real vectors. A single rectangle with nothing inside means the EPS holds a bitmap (more on that below). Switch back to the normal view from the same menu.
- Fix anything you need now: delete a white background box, change a colour, or ungroup with Object › Ungroup.
- Choose File › Export › Export As SVG…. In SVG Options, set the decimals and text handling (table below), click Show Code if you want to see the markup, and confirm. The SVG arrives as a browser download.
An EPS with several artboards, or one you split into several, can go out as one SVG per artboard: use File › Export › Export As…, choose SVG, tick Use Artboards and pick All or a range. Each file is named after the document and its artboard.
Is your EPS really vector?
EPS is a container. A designer's logo exported from Illustrator, CorelDRAW or Inkscape is drawn with PostScript path commands, and those become SVG paths. A photo or a scanned logo saved as EPS from Photoshop is a grid of pixels with a PostScript wrapper. Changing the format can't turn that second kind into clean paths: the SVG you get holds the same pixels inside an <image> tag.
If View › Outline shows a single box, select the picture and use Image Trace on it: Object › Image Trace › Make, pick a preset such as Black and White Logo or 6 Colors, then Expand. That gives you real paths, and the SVG export works as above.
SVG options worth changing
| Option | When to change it |
|---|---|
| Styling | Presentation attributes (the default) work everywhere. Pick internal CSS if a developer wants classes to restyle the icon from a stylesheet. |
| Decimal | Three places by default. Two is plenty for icons and logos at screen size and makes the file smaller; keep more for large technical drawings. |
| Minify | For the web: no XML declaration, indentation or line breaks. |
| Responsive | Leaves out width and height so the SVG scales to its container. Leave it off for cutting machines and anything that needs a physical size. |
| Font | Convert text to outlines when the SVG will be shown on computers that may not have the font. |
| Images | Embedded by default, so the SVG is one self-contained file. |
Preserve Editing Capabilities stores the full VectorCraft document inside the SVG, so it reopens with layers and live type in VectorCraft. It makes the file bigger, so turn it off for anything going on a website.
What doesn't convert cleanly
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean text set with CID-keyed fonts. VectorCraft's interpreter doesn't read that kind of font yet. Ask for the EPS with text converted to outlines.
- Fax-compressed (CCITT) black-and-white images inside the EPS are not read either. These turn up in old scanned line art.
- Fonts. Live text in the EPS keeps its font name, but the browser version only has the fonts bundled with VectorCraft, so other fonts show in a substitute. Set Font to outlines in SVG Options, or use the desktop app, which can use the fonts installed on your computer.
- EPS files from Illustrator carry Illustrator's own copy of the artwork as well. VectorCraft reads its layers and groups, so the SVG keeps the structure the designer built. The same caveats apply as for .ai files: live effects and brushes come through as the shapes they draw.
Other ways to convert EPS to SVG
Inkscape is free and opens EPS on Windows, macOS and Linux, but its EPS import runs through Ghostscript, a separate program you install yourself. Worth it if you convert EPS files every week and already use Inkscape.
Upload converters such as CloudConvert send the file to their servers and send back the SVG. CloudConvert's free plan gives 10 conversion credits a day, which covers a handful of files. You can't remove a background box or fix a colour on the way, and every file passes through someone else's server.
VectorCraft sits between the two: nothing to install, the file stays on your machine, and you can edit before you export. It also goes the other way. File › Export › Export As… writes EPS (Level 2 or 3, with a TIFF preview if you want one) for a print shop that still asks for it.
Check the SVG before you use it
Drag the downloaded SVG into a new browser tab. It should look the same as the EPS, at any zoom, with no blurry edges. If you need to change it later, open the SVG in VectorCraft again: editing an SVG online covers recolouring, reshaping and re-exporting. Keep the original EPS in case the printer asks for it.