Comparison of raster to vector conversion software

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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.

Contents

[edit] General information

This table gives basic general information about the different vector graphics editors:

Creator Released Latest version List price (USD) License
AutoTrace Martin Weber 1998 0.31.1 free GPL
Easy Trace Easy Trace Group 1993 8.1 $1180, $595 upgrade Proprietary
Freehand Macromedia 1988 11 (MX) $399, $99 upgrade Proprietary
Illustrator Adobe 1985 12 (CS2) $499, $169 upgrade Proprietary
MagicTracer Elgorithms MagicTracer 2005 2.0 $59 Demoware
PhotoLine Computerinsel GmbH 1997 14.02 59 Euro Shareware
Potrace Peter Selinger 2001 1.8 free GPL
R2V Toolkit AlgoLab  ? 2.91 $99 Shareware
Ras2Vec Davide Libenzi 1989 1.2 free GPL
Image2XAML Roman Kalachik 2008 0.7 free GPL
Raster to Vector Raster to Vector  ? 7.0 $99 Shareware
RasterVect RasterVect 1992 10.2 $79 Shareware
RaveGrid RaveGrid 2006 2.5 free for personal use
(commercial licenses available)		 Proprietary
Scan2CAD Pro Softcover Intn'l 1997 7.4a $469, $190 upgrade Demoware
Silhouette Pro Free Soft S.A. 1992 1.9.4 $359 Demoware
Adobe Streamline Adobe  ? 4.0  ? Proprietary
Vector Magic Vector Magic 2007 0.23.11030 Token Based Proprietary
Vextractor VextraSoft 2001 3.70 $99 Shareware
VPHybridCAD softelec 2007 9.03 $1400 Proprietary
WinTopo Freeware SoftSoft 1998 1.661 free Freeware
WiseImage Consistent Software 2001 10.7 $1400 Proprietary
RasVector Daniel Lu 2007 1.1.5 b6 free GPL
Xara Xtreme Xara Group Ltd. 2006 2.0f 79$ for Windows, free for Linux GPL
XTrace Ronny Schütz 1998/2005 2.0 25$ for Amiga (Demo available) Shareware
DesignPresentation DesignPresentation 2002 2.0 Pay Per Use SaaS
Creator Released Latest version List price (USD) License

[edit] Operating system support

This table lists the operating systems that different programs can run on without emulation:

Windows Mac OS X Unix AmigaOS/AROS
AutoTrace Yes Yes Yes Yes
Easy Trace Yes No No No
Freehand Yes Yes No No
Illustrator Yes Yes No No
MagicTracer Yes No No No
PhotoLine Yes Yes No No
Potrace Yes Yes Yes Yes
R2V Toolkit Yes No No No
Ras2Vec Yes No No No
Image2XAML Yes No No No
Raster to Vector Yes No No No
RasterVect Yes No No No
RaveGrid Yes (contact authors for non-gui version) (contact authors for non-gui version) No
Scan2CAD Pro Yes No No No
Silhouette Pro No Yes No No
Vector Magic Yes Yes Yes No
Vextractor Yes No No No
VPHybridCAD Yes No No No
WinTopo Yes No Yes No
RasVector Yes No No No
WiseImage Yes No No No
XTrace No No No Yes
Windows Mac OS X Unix AmigaOS/AROS

"Unix" includes the similar Linux and BSD operating systems.

[edit] Basic Features

Maximum zoom Object limit per document Control point limit Color management for print Export universal DXF inside AutoCAD application available Scripting support
AutoTrace N/A ? ? ? Yes No ?
Easy Trace 12800x ? ? Yes Yes No No
Freehand 64x ? ? Yes Yes No Yes
Illustrator 64x ? ? Yes Yes No Yes
MagicTracer 12800x ? ? Yes Yes No No
Potrace N/A ? ? No No No No
R2V Toolkit N/A ? ? No No No No
Ras2Vec ? ? ? ? ? No ?
Image2XAML ? ? ? ? ? No ?
Raster to Vector N/A ? ? No Yes No Yes
RasterVect No limit ? ? Yes Yes No Yes
RaveGrid No Limit No Limit N/A N/A N/A (only SVG/EPS) No No
Scan2CAD Pro ? ? ? Yes Yes No No
Silhouette Pro 64x ? ? Yes Yes No Yes
Vector Magic ? ? ? No N/A (SVG/EPS/PNG) No No
Vextractor 25x No limit No limit No Yes No No
VPHybridCAD No limit No limit No limit Yes Yes Yes, stand-alone and AutoCAD Yes
WinTopo Freeware +/-512x No limit N/A Yes Yes No No
WinTopo Pro +/-512x No limit No limit Yes Yes No Yes
RasVector N/A ? ? ? Yes No ?
WiseImage No limit More than 100 000 No limit Yes Yes Yes Yes
XTrace ? ? ? Yes Yes No (Thru Amiga ARexx)
Maximum zoom Object limit per document Control point limit Color management for print Export universal DXF inside AutoCAD application available Scripting support

[edit] Auto-tracing Features

Curve recognition Circle recognition Arc recognition Orthogonal line detection Corner detection Line connection Text Recognition (OCR)
WiseImage Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
AutoTrace Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Easy Trace Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Freehand Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Illustrator Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
MagicTracer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Potrace Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes  ? ?
R2V Toolkit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Ras2Vec ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Image2XAML ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Raster to Vector Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
RasterVect No Yes Yes Yes No No No
RaveGrid No No No No No No No
Scan2CAD Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Silhouette Pro Yes No No No Yes Yes No
Vector Magic Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Vextractor Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No
VPHybridCAD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WinTopo Freeware No No No No No Yes No
WinTopo Pro Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No
XTrace Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Curve recognition Circle recognition Arc recognition Orthogonal line detection Corner detection Line connection Text Recognition (OCR)

[edit] Raster Editing Features

Scanner support Freehand sketch Raster filters Change color depth Image resize Rotate Crop Raster shapes
WiseImage Contex, Graphtec, Colortrac, SmartLF, KIP, TWAIN Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
AutoTrace N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Easy Trace Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Freehand No No No No Yes Yes No No
Illustrator No No No No Yes Yes No No
MagicTracer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Potrace N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
R2V Toolkit Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No
Ras2Vec N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Image2XAML N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Raster to Vector N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
RasterVect Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
RaveGrid N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Scan2CAD Pro Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Silhouette Pro Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No
Vextractor Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
VPHybridCAD Yes, Direct Large-Format-Scanner interface for Contex, Colortrac, Graphtec, HP, KIP

plus TWAIN-Interface

 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WinTopo Freeware No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
WinTopo Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
XTrace N/A  ? Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Scanner Support Freehand sketch Raster Filters Change color depth Image resize Rotate Crop Raster Shapes

[edit] Vector Editing Features

Fills & hatch Vector combine Rotate & move Polylines Spline curves Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa Vector shapes
WiseImage Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Limited Yes
AutoTrace N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Easy Trace Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Freehand Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Illustrator Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
MagicTracer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Potrace N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
R2V Toolkit N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Ras2Vec N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Image2Xaml N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Raster to Vector N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
RasterVect No No Yes Yes No No Yes
RaveGrid N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Scan2CAD Pro No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Silhouette Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Vextractor No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
VPHybridCAD Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
WinTopo Freeware No No No Yes Yes No No
WinTopo Pro No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
XTrace  ?  ? Yes (3D rotation) Yes Yes  ? Yes
Fills & hatch Vector combine Rotate & move Polylines Spline curves Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa Vector shapes

[edit] Free software

  • AutoTrace
  • Delineate - frontend for AutoTrace or Potrace that exports to SVG
  • Inkscape - conversion and creation tool (uses Potrace for raster to vector conversion)
  • Potrace
  • Ras2Vec

[edit] Freeware Software

[edit] Proprietary software

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] WinTopo Freeware usage statement

[edit] See also