VectorMagic is perhaps the coolest web tool I’ve seen in quite some time. It takes raster (bitmap) images and converts them to vector images. (Allowing you to save as either SGV, EPS or PNG.) There are several command line and desktop tools you can use to do this. Illustrator, for example, does a tremendous job of this, but then you have to pay for Illustrator. If all you want is to vectorize one image, VectorMagic is amazing.

Here’s an example:

Original:

Vectorized: (and then re-rasterized, but you get the point.)

The vector version certainly loses detail, but it scales infinitely, whereas you start to see pixels pretty quickly when you make the raster version bigger. Also, I just sort of think that vector images like this look neat.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.