MagicTracer: Raster to Vector Conversion

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An Overview of MagicTracer™ 2.0

MagicTracer™ offers three main categories of tools for manipulating raster and vector data:

The goals of the Image and Raster tools are to enhance and refine the raw image data to make it more easily interpretable as outlines or edges. The goals of the Vector tools are to create, edit, and refine vector entities so that they reproduce, as accurately as possible, the desired elements of the original raster image.

Image tools are generally used to make overall changes to the quality of the image – rotating, cropping, changing color depth.

Raster tools are generally used to remove unwanted detail, or to sharpen or enhance the desired details, and finally to convert the image to a set of black-and-white outlines in preparation for vector conversion.

Vector tools are used to convert the outlines to vectors, and to edit the resulting vector entities or create new ones.

A typical workflow for converting an image to vectors might go something like this:

  1. The Image tools would be used to rotate and crop the image, and perhaps change the contrast or gamma settings to enhance the details of interest.
  2. The Raster tools would then be used, possibly using Median or Gaussian Blur to smooth out some noisy areas of the image, then Linear or Nonlinear Edge Detection would be used to trace the boundaries of objects in the image. The Threshold command could then convert the boundaries to black lines on a white background, and Trace Outline would be used to thin those outlines.
  3. Finally the Vector tools would be used to convert the outlines to vectors and to clean up and enhance the vector entities that were created.