How to use it
- Drop in a photo. Portraits, pets and landscapes with clear subjects work best.
- Start with the Photo style, then raise or lower the color count.
- Use the comparison slider to judge the detail, and adjust smoothing.
- Download the SVG.
What to expect
A photo has millions of subtle tones. An SVG stores flat shapes. Converting means reducing the photo to a limited palette, so you get a posterized poster look with hard edges between color patches.
It can look great as a style for portraits, pet art, silhouettes and landscapes. It is not a way to make a photo sharp at any size, and a high color count can produce a large file.
Tips for better photo vectors
Pick photos with strong contrast and a simple background. Crop tight on the subject. For a bold stencil look, use Black and white and move the threshold. For more tonal detail, raise the colors to 24 or 32 and expect a heavier file.
What the settings do
- Colors
- The biggest control for photos. 8 gives a bold poster look. 32 keeps much more detail.
- Smoothing
- Higher values merge small patches into larger, calmer shapes.
- Soften
- Reduces grain so tones group into cleaner areas.
- Remove small specks
- Drops tiny patches to keep the file lighter.
What people use it for
- Pop-art style portraits and pet art
- Silhouettes and stencils from a photo
- Posters, prints and apparel graphics
- Simple shapes for cutting and engraving
Questions
Can a photo become a true vector?
Not in the way a logo can. A tracer can only approximate a photo with flat color shapes, so the result looks posterized.
Why is my SVG so big?
Photos create many small shapes. Lower the color count, raise Smoothing, and raise Remove small specks.
What photos work best?
High contrast, a clear subject and a plain background.
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.