Comparison of raster-to-vector conversion software
The following tables contain general and technical information about publicly available raster-to-vector conversion software.
General information
Creator | Year released | Year last updated | List price (USD) | License | Supported OS (without emulation) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CorelDRAW | Cascade Parent Limited d.b.a Alludo Formerly called the Corel Corporation | 1989 | 2023 (version 24.3) | $449, $169 upgrade | Proprietary | Windows |
Easy Trace | InterVek LLC (Russian: ООО ИнтерВек) d.b.a. Easy Trace Group (Russian: Группа Easy Trace) | ? | 2023 (version 12.4)[1] | €960, €480 upgrade (Easy Trace Pro) Versions 7.99 and 8.65 are free (Easy Trace) | Proprietary | Windows |
Adobe Illustrator | Adobe Inc. Formerly called Adobe Systems Inc. | 1985 | 2023 (version 27.8.1) | $19.99 per month | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
PhotoLine | Computerinsel GmbH | 1996 | 2023 (version 24.01) | $86, $42 upgrade | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
Graphic Tracer Professional | Steve Boek Graphic Powers AB | 2016 | 2023 (version 12:2) | $15 per month or $120 per year | Proprietary | Windows |
Inkscape (uses Potrace) | Inkscape.org | 2003 | 2023 (version 1.3) | Free | GPL-2.0-or-later | Windows, macOS, Linux |
ImageTracer | András Jankovics | 2015 | 2020 (version 1.2.6) | Free | Public domain (Unlicense) | Cross-platform (platforms that can run JavaScript or Java) |
Potrace | Peter Selinger | 2001 | 2019 (version 1.16) | Free | GPL-2.0-or-later | Cross-platform, Windows and POSIX |
Scan2CAD | Avia Systems | 1997 | 2022 (version 10.4.13) | $49–$149 per month | Proprietary | Windows, macOS |
WinTopo Freeware | SoftSoft Ltd. | 1999 | 2015 (version 1.76) | Freeware Free to use for any purpose, including commercial purposes[2] | Proprietary | Windows |
WinTopo Pro | SoftSoft Ltd. | 2000 | 2015 (version 3.6) | $299 | Proprietary | Windows |
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer | Xara Group Ltd. | 1994 | 2023 (version 23.4) | $89.99 | Proprietary | Windows |
Super Vectorizer | Effectmatrix Ltd. | 2013 | 2016 (version 1.6.6) | $29.99 | Proprietary | macOS |
AutoTrace | Martin Weber | 1998 | 2024 (version 0.31.10) | Free | GPL-2.0-or-later | Cross-platform, POSIX (mainly Unix-like) |
VTracer | Tsang Hao Fung | 2020 | 2022 (version 0.5.0) | Free | MIT | Cross-platform (command-line version) Browsers with WebAssembly support (web version) |
SVGcode (uses Potrace) | Thomas Steiner | 2021 | 2023 (version ?) | Free | GPL-2.0-or-later | Android, web (PWA), Windows |
Primitive | Michael Fogleman | Free | MIT | MAC OS X, with Python & Go packages and a JavaScript port | ||
KVEC | K. Kuhl | Freeware | WIN 2000, WIN XP, WIN Vista/7, OS/2, Linux, BeOS, MAC OS X | |||
Creator | Year released | Year least updated | List price (USD) | License | Supported OS (without emulation) |
Basic features
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 |
Graphic Tracer Professional | No limit | No limit | No limit | No | ? | ? | Yes | No |
Adobe Illustrator | 640x | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | No | Yes |
Potrace | N/A | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | No | No |
ImageTracer | N/A | No limit | No limit | No | No | ? | No | Yes |
Scan2CAD | 64K | No limit | No limit | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
WinTopo Pro | 512x | No limit | No limit | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
PhotoLine | 25600% | 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 |
CAD features
NAME | Export universal DXF | Available in AutoCAD application | Curve recognition | Circle recognition | Arc recognition | Orthogonal line detection | Corner detection | Line connection |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy Trace | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Graphic Tracer Professional | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Adobe 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 |
PhotoLine | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Export universal DXF | Available in AutoCAD application | Curve recognition | Circle recognition | Arc recognition | Orthogonal line detection | Corner detection | Line connection |
Raster editing features
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 |
Graphic Tracer Professional | Yes | Yes | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes | No | N/A |
Adobe 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 | ? |
AutoTrace | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
PhotoLine | Yes | 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
Fills & hatch | Vector combine | Rotate & move | Polylines | Spline curves | Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa | Vector shapes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy Trace | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Graphic Tracer Professional | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Adobe Illustrator | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Potrace | 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 |
Scan2CAD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinTopo Pro | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
AutoTrace | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
PhotoLine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Fills & hatch | Vector combine | Rotate & move | Polylines | Spline curves | Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa | Vector shapes |
Discontinued software
- Adobe Freehand (1988-2003)
- Adobe Streamline (1989-2001)
- Xara Xtreme for Linux – 2006 open source fork of Xara Photo & Graphic Designer