Turn any image into a clean, scalable vector

Why convert images to vectors?

A raster image — a PNG, JPG, or WebP — is a fixed grid of pixels. Enlarge it and the grid shows: edges turn jagged, soft details smear, and a logo that looked sharp on a business card turns to mush on a banner. A vector stores shapes as mathematical paths instead of pixels, so it stays razor-sharp at any size — from a favicon to a billboard — while often weighing a fraction of the original file.

That is what Vectorizely does: it traces the outlines and color regions of your image and rebuilds them as SVG paths you can scale, recolor, and edit in Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma, or any modern design tool. It is the same idea as Adobe Illustrator's “Image Trace,” except it is free and runs entirely in your browser.

What vectorizes well — and what doesn't

Tracing is excellent for logos, icons, line art, lettering, and flat illustrations: artwork with a limited palette and clean edges converts into a handful of tidy paths. It is the wrong tool for photographs and smooth gradients — there is no “true” vector of a sunset, so a tracer can only approximate it with stacked flat-color shapes, producing a posterized look and a heavy file. When that happens, the honest answer is to keep the photo as a raster, and we will tell you so rather than hand you a 5 MB SVG that looks worse than the original.

Why “in your browser” matters

Most online converters upload your file to their servers, process it there, and send it back — which means your unreleased logo or a client's brand asset briefly lives on someone else's machine. Vectorizely uses WebAssembly/JavaScript tracing that runs on your device, so the image never leaves your browser. That is faster (no upload round-trip), works offline, and keeps confidential artwork confidential. It is also why we can offer it free forever: there are no GPU bills to recover.

What you can convert here

Vectorizely covers both directions of the raster–vector divide, each as a focused tool:

• PNG to SVG — the most common case: trace a transparent PNG logo or icon into clean vector paths.
• JPG to SVG — convert a JPG graphic to vector, working around JPEG's compression artifacts.
• Image to SVG — the general converter for any raster format (PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, BMP).
• Vectorize a logo — tuned for turning a pixelated logo into a sharp, brand-ready vector.
• Image trace — a free, in-browser take on Adobe Illustrator's Image Trace.
• SVG to PNG — the reverse: render an SVG to a fixed-size PNG for places that do not accept vectors.

Raster vs. vector, the short version

A raster image (PNG, JPG, WebP) is a fixed grid of pixels. It is the right format for photographs and anything with continuous tone, but it is locked to one resolution — enlarge it and the grid shows. A vector (SVG) stores shapes as mathematical paths, so it redraws perfectly at any size and is editable point by point. The practical upshot: keep photos as raster, and convert logos, icons, and flat artwork to vector so they scale from a 16-pixel favicon to a stadium banner without ever blurring — usually at a fraction of the file size. The zoom comparison above is the whole argument in one picture.

How the tracing works

Turning pixels into paths is called tracing, and it happens in three stages. First, color quantization reduces the image's many colors to a small palette — that is the Colors control. Next, segmentation groups adjacent same-color pixels into regions and discards tiny stray ones (the Despeckle control). Finally, curve fitting approximates each region's jagged pixel edge with smooth Bézier curves (the Smoothing control). Knowing this explains the limits: flat artwork already is a few solid-color regions with crisp edges, so every stage has an easy job; a photograph has effectively unlimited colors and no clean boundaries, so tracing can only posterize it.

Getting a clean result

Start with the highest-resolution version of your image you have — a tracer has far more to work with from a 1000-pixel logo than a blurry 200-pixel thumbnail. Then lean on three controls: lower Colors for flat logos (2–4 is often perfect) and raise it for detailed illustrations; raise Despeckle if anti-aliasing leaves confetti around edges; and lower Smoothing to keep hard corners or raise it for flowing, hand-drawn lines. If a result looks blocky no matter what, that is the image telling you it is photographic — and better left as a raster.

Using your SVG once you have it

An SVG is plain text, which makes it remarkably flexible. Drop it into a website with an <img> tag, or paste the markup inline and recolor it in CSS with fill: currentColor. Import it into Figma, Illustrator, Inkscape, or Affinity as fully editable shapes. Turn it into a React or Preact component for a design system. Or upload it to Cricut Design Space, Silhouette Studio, or a laser cutter, which follow the vector paths directly as cut and engrave lines. The same file serves the web, print, and fabrication.

Who uses it

Developers cleaning up logos and icons for crisp, lightweight, recolorable UI; designers recovering an editable vector from a flattened PNG mock-up; small businesses turning a years-old raster logo into something a print shop or embroiderer can actually use; and makers preparing artwork for cutting and engraving. The common thread is wanting a real vector without a subscription, an upload, or a watermark.

PNG, SVG, and PDF: which format, when

Three formats cover most graphic needs, and the choice is really about how the artwork will be used:

Format	Type	Reach for it when…
SVG	Vector	It is a logo, icon, or flat graphic you will resize, recolor, or animate — your scalable master.
PNG	Raster	You need a fixed-size image with transparency, or a platform that will not accept SVG.
PDF	Vector (print)	You are handing artwork to a printer; PDF carries vectors plus print color and bleed.

Vectorizely converts between the two web formats — raster ↔ SVG — and most vector editors can export a PDF from your SVG when a print shop asks for one.

Is it really free — and really private?

Both, and for the same reason. The tracing and rendering run as code inside your browser, on your own device's processor. Nothing is sent to a server, so there is no upload, no copy of your file sitting in someone's storage, and no compute bill for us to recover — which is why there is no paywall, no watermark, and no account wall. You can confirm it yourself: load a tool, then disconnect from the internet, and it keeps working, because the work was never happening anywhere but your own machine. For unreleased brand work or client assets, that is the difference between a tool you can trust and one you have to think twice about.

Tips for the best results

• Start big. Trace from the highest-resolution source you have — a tracer has far more to work with than a blurry thumbnail.
• Match colors to the artwork. Few colors for flat logos, more for detailed illustrations.
• Clean the background first. Remove anything you do not want traced into a shape.
• Pick the right tool for the job. Photographs stay raster; logos, icons, and line art become vector.
• Keep the SVG. It is your master — export PNGs from it whenever you need a fixed size.