Vecto

Free, open-source image-to-vector converter.
Trace PNG and JPG images — logos, icons, illustrations, pixel art, scans — into clean, editable SVG
with mathematically exact circles, true straight lines, and zero gaps between shapes.

Vecto is a bitmap-to-vector tracing app (auto-tracer / image vectorizer) in the spirit of Vector Magic and Adobe Illustrator's Image Trace — but free, open source, and built around one structural idea: the traced image is a planar partition. Every boundary between two shapes is fitted once and shared by both sides, so the output physically cannot contain the hairline gaps and overlaps that plague most PNG-to-SVG converters.

Why Vecto instead of other vectorizers?

• No gaps, no overlaps — by construction. Shared-boundary planar tracing (the same property Vector Magic's output has, and stacked-layer tracers like potrace don't).
• Geometric intelligence. Straight edges become true straight lines, circles and round caps become mathematically exact arcs (least-squares circle fits) — not wobbly approximations. Icons and logos come out looking designed, not traced.
• Sub-pixel precision. Anti-aliasing encodes where the real edge is; Vecto reads it and places boundaries at sub-pixel positions instead of snapping to the pixel grid.
• Live side-by-side compare with synced zoom/pan, segmentation view, palette swatches, and instant re-trace on every setting change. Copy the SVG straight to your clipboard.
• Fast. A 250 px logo traces in ~60 ms; a 4K photo posterizes in ~4.5 s.
• Deterministic and tested. Same input → byte-identical SVG; 14 geometric-invariant tests (exact area preservation, corner exactness, circle accuracy, culture safety).
• Headless CLI + benchmark harness for batch tracing and objective quality measurement.

Install

Option 1 — Download (recommended, no setup)

Grab the latest from the Releases page:

• Vecto-x.y.z.exe — the desktop app as one self-contained file. Download, run, done — no .NET, no installer.
• Vecto-x.y.z-win-x64.zip — the app plus the vecto command-line tool (unzip anywhere; add the folder to PATH to use vecto from any terminal).

CLI for Linux and macOS (vecto-x.y.z-linux-x64 / -osx-x64 / -osx-arm64) is on the same page — full tracing, batch and benchmarking from any terminal (chmod +x after download).

SHA-256 checksums are listed in each release. Windows SmartScreen may warn on first run (new, unsigned executable) — choose More info → Run anyway.

Option 2 — Build from source

Requires Windows 10/11 and the free .NET 8 SDK:

git clone https://github.com/DanielMevit/Vecto.git
cd Vecto
dotnet build -c Release

After the build:

• Desktop app: Vecto.App\bin\Release\net8.0-windows\Vecto.exe — run it directly or pin it to the taskbar.
• CLI: Vecto.Cli\bin\Release\net8.0\vecto.exe — add that folder to your PATH to call vecto from anywhere.

Using Vecto

App: drop / paste (Ctrl+V) / open any PNG, JPG, BMP or GIF → automatic trace → export or copy SVG. Transparency is preserved. Tip: feed the highest-resolution image you have — trace quality scales with input size.

CLI:

vecto trace logo.png -o logo.svg --stats       # vectorize an image
vecto trace photo.jpg --style photo --colors 24
vecto bench original.svg --scale 2             # round-trip quality benchmark vs ground truth
vecto samples out/                             # generate test images

How it works

Palette inference (weighted k-means++ in Oklab) → segmentation with small-region absorption → planar boundary graph (every chain between junctions traced once, shared by both regions) → corner detection with sub-pixel validation → clamped smoothing + sub-pixel edge refinement → simplest-model-first fitting (line → circular arc → least-squares Bezier) → compact SVG. The full stage-by-stage map with parameters and code anchors lives in docs/ai/ALGORITHM_INDEX.md.

Every algorithm is from the open literature (Schneider curve fitting, k-means++, Kåsa circle fit, Oklab, Douglas–Peucker) — no license-encumbered code anywhere in the engine.

Comparison

	Vecto	potrace / Inkscape	Illustrator Image Trace	Vector Magic
Price	Free, MIT	Free	Subscription	Paid
Full color	✅	⚠️ per-layer stacking	✅	✅
Gap/overlap-free output	✅ planar	❌	⚠️	✅
Exact lines & circles	✅	lines only	❌	❌
Open source	✅	✅	❌	❌
Headless CLI + bench	✅	CLI only	❌	❌

Roadmap

Palette editor & tracing wizard, background removal, batch mode, PDF/EPS/DXF export, segmentation editing tools, centerline (stroke) tracing. See ROADMAP.md.

Contributing & docs

The repo is agent-friendly and human-friendly: start at AGENTS.md → docs/ai/START_HERE.md. Build must stay at 0 warnings; every engine change should pass vecto bench before/after. PRs welcome.

License

MIT © Daniel Mevit. Engine (Vecto.Core) has zero dependencies; the CLI uses SixLabors.ImageSharp 3.1.x for image decoding.

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