Quick steps
- Open the editor and drag your image onto the window. With no document open, it opens as a document the size of the image. To trace into an existing document instead, drop it on that document’s canvas, or use File › Place….
- Click the image with the Selection tool (V). The Control bar and the Properties panel now show an Image Trace button.
- Click Image Trace to trace with the Default preset, or click its arrow to choose a preset. Object › Image Trace › Make does the same.
- Open Window › Image Trace to fine-tune: change the preset, the mode or the colours, and the trace updates.
- When it looks right, click Expand (or Object › Image Trace › Expand). The trace becomes ordinary paths and groups.
- Export with File › Export › Export As SVG…, or File › Save as PDF… for print.
VectorCraft opens PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF and BMP images, and PSD files as their merged image. HEIC photos don’t open; convert them to JPEG first.
Which preset should you pick?
| Preset | Best for |
|---|---|
| Flat Logo | Logos and icons in a few flat colours. Places each outline between colours to a fraction of a pixel and turns near-straight runs and arcs into exact lines and arcs. Refuses gradients and photos. |
| Black and White Logo | One-colour marks, stamps and signatures. |
| 3 Colors, 6 Colors, 16 Colors | Flat illustrations and posters with a limited palette. |
| Line Art, Technical Drawing | Ink drawings, scanned sketches and plans. |
| Sketched Art | Pencil and marker sketches with rougher lines. |
| Silhouettes | Solid shapes against a plain background. |
| Shades of Gray | Greyscale artwork in tonal bands. |
| High Fidelity Photo, Low Fidelity Photo | Photos, as many coloured regions (expect large files). |
The Image Trace panel’s Mode menu sets the kind of trace directly: Black and White, Grayscale, Color or Flat Logo. Color mode’s Palette can be Limited, Full Tone, Automatic or a Document Library of your swatches, so a logo can be traced straight into your brand colours.
How do you get a cleaner trace?
- Start clean. A crisp image with flat colours on a plain background traces far better than a blurry screenshot or a JPEG full of compression noise.
- Drop the background. In the Image Trace panel’s Advanced section, tick Ignore White so a white background doesn’t become a shape.
- Fewer, smoother paths. Raise Noise to skip specks, lower Paths for looser curves, and tick Snap Curves To Lines for straight edges.
- Lines as strokes. For line drawings, set Create to Strokes: thin lines trace as stroked centre lines you can restyle, not filled outlines.
- Check before expanding. The View menu shows the result with outlines or over the source image, and the panel counts paths, anchors and colours.
Two limits to know: Flat Logo works at up to 1024 pixels on the long side (larger images are averaged down first), and a trace that would make more than two million anchor points, or an image over 64 megapixels, is refused with advice instead of running out of memory.
What can you do with the result?
After Expand, the artwork is ordinary vector paths. Recolour regions in the Properties panel, merge or cut shapes with Pathfinder, delete stray pieces, and scale to any size without blur. Then export SVG for the web, PDF for print, or PNG at any resolution. For more on working with SVG, see how to edit an SVG file online.
No image yet? Generate one to trace
The AI panel on this site can generate a picture in a look that traces well (flat logo, line art, silhouette) with your own OpenAI, Gemini or OpenRouter key, then place it in your document ready for Image Trace. For simple icons it can also write SVG directly, so there is nothing to trace.
FAQ
Is it really free?
Yes. VectorCraft is open source, Image Trace runs on your device, and there is no account, watermark or export limit.
Is my image uploaded?
No. The editor runs in your browser with WebAssembly, so tracing happens on your computer. The traced file reaches you as a normal download.
Can it vectorize a photo?
Yes, with the High Fidelity Photo or Low Fidelity Photo preset, but a photo becomes thousands of coloured shapes. Tracing suits logos, icons, drawings and flat illustrations best.