Prepare the image
The larger and cleaner the better: 1000 pixels across at minimum, flat colours, no JPG halo. Image Cleanup Tool and Image Threshold Tool flatten a noisy scan or a photo of a drawing before tracing.
Image to vector · 13 tools
Image to vector for cutting
Trace logos, lettering, line art and silhouettes from PNG and JPG into cut-able SVG paths, with threshold, speck removal and smoothing you can see.
Half the jobs a sign shop receives arrive as a screenshot of a logo, a photo of a hand-lettered board, or a WhatsApp image of a competitor's sticker. None of those cut. Tracing turns the pixels into paths, and the difference between a usable trace and a jagged mess is three decisions: where to set the black-and-white threshold, how much dust to ignore, and how far to smooth the edge.
The tracers here make those decisions visible. The image and the traced paths sit side by side on the mat; move the threshold slider and the outline changes immediately. Output width is set in millimetres, node tolerance simplifies the path so the machine runs smoothly, and the result can be sent straight on to the stencil, offset or nesting tools.
Try it here
Image to SVG
Trace any image into vector paths.
How a image to vector job runs
Trace
Image to SVG, Logo Vectorizer and Line Art Vectorizer differ in their defaults: logos prefer sharp corners and no smoothing; line art keeps thin strokes; Silhouette Generator returns only the outer shape.
Tune three sliders
Threshold decides what is black. Remove specks drops dust below a pixel size. Smoothing rounds staircase edges. Watch the mat, not the sliders.
Set the size and export
Output width in millimetres, node tolerance for a cleaner path, then SVG or DXF. Vector Smoothing and Vector Simplification are available as separate passes if the trace needs more work.
All image to vector tools
13 tools · Trace logos and artwork into cut-able SVG paths.Image to SVGTrace any image into vector paths.PNG to SVGPNG logos and artwork to clean SVG.JPG to SVGPhotos and scans traced into vector.Logo VectorizerCrisp logo tracing with smoothing.Black & White VectorizerThreshold-based two-tone tracing.Line Art VectorizerTrace drawings and sketches.Silhouette GeneratorSolid silhouette from a photo.Image Threshold ToolChoose the exact cut-off between black and white.Image Cleanup ToolRemove specks before tracing.Edge DetectionOutline-only tracing of image edges.Trace ImageGeneral-purpose image tracing.Vector SmoothingSmooth jagged traced outlines.Vector SimplificationFewer nodes after tracing.
On the machine
What traces well
Logos, hand lettering, stamps, stencils, brush calligraphy, woodcut-style illustration: anything with two tones and clear edges. Photographs, gradients and anti-aliased tiny text do not; they become blobs regardless of settings.
JPG artefacts
JPG compression leaves an 8-pixel block halo around edges that the tracer reads as a wobble. Prefer PNG. If only a JPG exists, raise Remove specks and Smoothing together, and expect to simplify afterwards.
Resolution and size
A 300-pixel logo traced to 600 mm gives 2 mm per pixel and visible staircase corners. Ask for the original file, or trace at the size the image supports and accept the smoothing.
Edges and thresholds
Edge Detection produces outlines from a photo for engraving, not cutting. Black & White Vectorizer applies a fixed 50 percent threshold for scans that are already clean.
What usually goes wrong
- Tracing a screenshot with the logo at 150 pixels wide and expecting a crisp 1 m sign.
- Leaving specks in. Each one becomes a 0.3 mm circle the plotter dutifully cuts.
- Over-smoothing lettering until the corners of an E or an M disappear. Smooth in small steps.
- Tracing coloured artwork as one layer. Reduce the image to the colour you want first; multi-colour separation is on the roadmap.
- Skipping the cleanup checks. Run the traced file through Tiny Object Detector and Open Path Checker before the material goes on the bed.
Common questions
Does the image leave my computer?
No. Tracing runs entirely in the browser; the file is never uploaded. Files up to 15 MB are handled locally.
Can I trace text and then edit the letters?
A trace is a shape, not text. You can offset, weld and resize it, but to change a letter you retype it with the calligraphy tools.
How do I get a clean silhouette from a product photo?
Increase the threshold until the background drops out, raise speck removal to clear shadows, then run Silhouette Generator, which keeps only the outer contour.
Why is the traced path so heavy?
A pixel edge produces a node at every step. Node tolerance and Vector Simplification collapse those into curves; 0.1 to 0.2 mm tolerance is invisible on the cut and shrinks the file tenfold.