Comparison of raster-to-vector conversion software

This article is about raster image conversion. For other uses, see Vectorization (image tracing) and Vectorization (disambiguation).

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.

General information

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	X7	$449, $169 upgrade	Proprietary	Windows
Easy Trace	Easy Trace Group	2009	9.0 build 1856	1500 Euro, 750 Euro upgrade	Proprietary	Windows
Macromedia FreeHand	Macromedia	1988	11.0.2 discontinued (MX)	$399, $99 upgrade	Proprietary	Windows, Mac OSX
Adobe Illustrator	Adobe Systems	1985	16.0.0 (CS6)	$499, $169 upgrade	Proprietary	Windows, Mac OSX
Inkscape	Inkscape.org	2003	0.91	free	GPL	Windows, Mac OSX, Linux
ImageTracer	András Jankovics	2015	1.0.4	free	Public domain	Cross-platform , JavaScript or Java based
MagicTracer	Elgorithms	2003	2.0.012	$59	Proprietary	Windows
Potrace	Peter Selinger	2001	1.11	free	GPL	Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, BSD, AmigaOS/AROS
Scan2CAD	Avia Systems	2010	Version 8	$249 – $399	Proprietary	Windows
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
	Creator	Released	Latest version	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
FreeHand	64x	?	?	No	?	?	No	Yes
Illustrator	64x	?	?	Yes	?	?	No	Yes
Potrace	N/A	?	?	No	?	?	No	No
ImageTracer^[1]	N/A	No limit	No limit	No	No	?	No	No
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

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
Illustrator	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Potrace	Yes	No	No	?	?	?	Yes	?
ImageTracer	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	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

	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
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

	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
FreeHand	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
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	?	?
	Fills & hatch	Vector combine	Rotate & move	Polylines	Spline curves	Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa	Vector shapes

Free software

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

Freeware software

WinTopo Freeware - Free to use for any purpose including commercial^[4]

Proprietary software

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Graphical software.

References

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