Image Trace online, without opening Illustrator

Illustrator's Image Trace turns a bitmap into vector paths. This page does the same job in a browser tab, and the guide below shows which Image Trace settings match which controls here.

Drop an image herePNG, JPG, WebP, GIF or BMP. You can also paste an image from your clipboard.Choose a file

How to use it

Add the image you would normally place in Illustrator.
Choose a style. Black and white is the counterpart of the Black and White Logo preset; Logo or icon is closest to the 6 Colors preset.
Use the comparison line to check thin strokes and corners, then adjust.
Download the SVG and open it in Illustrator to refine anchor points or expand fills.

Why trace outside Illustrator

Sometimes you do not have Illustrator open, you are on a machine without it, or you want a second opinion on an image where the first trace came out messy. Tracers make different guesses at the same pixels, and one often handles a given logo better than the other.

A trace from this page is a normal SVG. Open it in Illustrator and you can clean up anchor points, merge shapes with Pathfinder, or recolor swatches as you would with any traced artwork.

What the settings do

Style: Sets sensible starting values for the kind of image you have. You can still change every setting afterward.
Colors: How many flat colors the tracer keeps. Each color becomes one path in the SVG, so lower numbers give simpler files.
Smoothing: Higher values merge small bumps into smooth curves and shrink the file. Lower values follow the pixels more closely.
Remove small specks: Drops tiny shapes, such as dust or compression noise, below the size you choose.
Make white background transparent: Removes the white area connected to the edge of the image, so the SVG has no white box behind it.

What people use it for

Tracing a logo when Illustrator is not available
Comparing a second trace against an Image Trace result
Quick cut-ready outlines from a sketch or signature
Preparing a starting SVG to finish by hand in a vector editor

How Image Trace settings map to the controls here

If you know Image Trace, these are the closest equivalents. The two tracers are not identical, so expect similar results rather than the same paths.

Illustrator Image Trace	This tool	Notes
Black and White Logo, Line Art, Sketched Art	Style: Black and white	Threshold sets what counts as ink. Raise it to catch faint lines.
3 Colors, 6 Colors, 16 Colors	Style: Logo or icon / Illustration, Colors slider	The slider sets the most colors the trace may use.
High and Low Fidelity Photo	Style: Photo	Expect posterized artwork and a larger file.
Threshold (black and white mode)	Threshold	Same idea: darker than the value becomes a shape.
Paths	Smoothing	Runs the opposite way. Higher Smoothing gives looser, simpler paths.
Noise	Remove small specks	Both ignore areas below a size you set.
Expand	Not needed	The SVG already contains plain filled paths.

Questions

Is this the same as Illustrator's Image Trace?

It does the same kind of job, turning pixels into filled vector paths, but it is a different tracer with its own settings. Results on the same image will be close for clean logos and can differ on messy ones.

Can I open the result in Illustrator?

Yes. The download is a standard SVG. Open it in Illustrator and edit it like any vector artwork. Each color is one compound path, which you can release if you want separate shapes.

Which style matches the Black and White Logo preset?

Black and white. Move the threshold until strokes are solid without picking up paper grain or compression noise.

How do I get fewer anchor points?

Raise Smoothing and Remove small specks, and lower the number of colors. Illustrator's Simplify command can reduce points further after you open the file.

Is my file uploaded anywhere?

No. Tracing and file creation happen in your browser, using code that is part of this page. Your image is not sent to a server. You can check this in your browser's network tab while you use the tool.