Comparison of raster to vector conversion software

The following tables contain general and technical information about a number of raster to vector conversion software products. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.

General information

This table gives basic general information about the different vector graphics editors:

	Creator	Released	Latest version	List price (USD)	License
CorelDRAW	Corel	2010	X5	$499, $199 upgrade	Proprietary
Easy Trace	Easy Trace Group	2009	9.0 build 1856	1500 Euro, 750 Euro upgrade	Proprietary
Freehand	Macromedia	1988	11.0.2 discontinued (MX)	$399, $99 upgrade	Proprietary
Illustrator	Adobe Systems	1985	15.0.2 (CS 5)	$499, $169 upgrade	Proprietary
Potrace	Peter Selinger	2001	1.9	free	GPL
Adobe Streamline	Adobe Systems	?	4.0	?	Proprietary
WinTopo Freeware	SoftSoft	1998	1.661	free	Proprietary
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer	Xara Group Ltd.	1994	7.0	89$	Proprietary
	Creator	Released	Latest version	List price (USD)	License

Operating system support

This table lists the operating systems that different programs can run on without emulation:

NAME	Linux	Windows	Mac OS X	BSD	AmigaOS/AROS	IBM z/OS
Easy Trace	?	Yes	No	No	No	No
Freehand	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Illustrator	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Potrace	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
WinTopo	using Wine	Yes	No	No	No	No
Name	Linux	Windows	Mac OS X	BSD	AmigaOS/AROS	IBM z/OS

Basic Features

NAME	Maximum zoom	Object limit per document	Control point limit	Color management for print	Thumbnails	Adjust Image (functions)	Text Recognition (OCR)	Scripting support
Easy Trace	12800x	No Limit	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Freehand	64x	?	?	No	?	?	No	Yes
Illustrator	64x	?	?	Yes	?	?	No	Yes
Potrace	N/A	?	?	No	?	?	No	No
WinTopo Freeware	+/-512x	No limit	N/A	Yes	?	?	No	No
WinTopo Pro	+/-512x	No limit	No limit	Yes	?	?	No	Yes
	Maximum zoom	Object limit per document	Control point limit	Color management for print	Thumbnails	adjust image (functions)	Text Recognition (OCR)	Scripting support

AutoCAD Features

NAME	Export universal DXF	inside AutoCAD application available	Curve recognition	Circle recognition	Arc recognition	Orthogonal line detection	Corner detection	Line connection
Easy Trace	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Freehand	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Illustrator	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Potrace	No	No	No	?	?	?	Yes	?
WinTopo Freeware	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
WinTopo Pro	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Export universal DXF	inside AutoCAD application available	Curve recognition	Circle recognition	Arc recognition	Orthogonal line detection	Corner detection	Line connection

Raster Editing Features

	Scanner support	Freehand sketch	Raster filters	Change color depth	Image resize	Rotate	Crop	Raster shapes
Easy Trace	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Freehand	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Illustrator	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Potrace	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
WinTopo Freeware	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
WinTopo Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	Scanner Support	Freehand sketch	Raster Filters	Change color depth	Image resize	Rotate	Crop	Raster Shapes

Vector Editing Features

	Fills & hatch	Vector combine	Rotate & move	Polylines	Spline curves	Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa	Vector shapes
Easy Trace	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Freehand	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Illustrator	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Potrace	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
WinTopo Freeware	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
WinTopo Pro	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Fills & hatch	Vector combine	Rotate & move	Polylines	Spline curves	Lines to curves cmd. & vice versa	Vector shapes

Free software

• Inkscape - conversion and creation tool (uses Potrace for raster to vector conversion)
• Potrace - cross-platform utility for tracing a bitmap into a smooth, scalable image

Proprietary software

• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Streamline
• Corel PowerTRACE
• Easy Trace
• GTX Corp - GTXRaster CAD Series, GTXImage CAD Series- free demo available
• Macromedia FreeHand
• Macromedia Flash
• WinTopo Pro
• WinTopo Freeware
• Xara Photo & Graphic Designer

See also

• Raster to vector