The one thing that matters most: pick the right Mode for your art. That decides 90% of your quality. Then tweak the sliders.
1 · Two ways to start
- ⬆ Trace — drop in an image you already have (PNG · JPG · WEBP). Flat art & logos work best.
- ✨ Generate — describe a design in words and AI builds it, then it vectorizes automatically.
2 · Pick your Mode (most important)
- B&W — silhouettes, line art, 1-colour logos. The cleanest, smallest files. Pair with Remove background for a transparent cut/print file.
- Color — flat full-colour mascots, logos, badges. Smooth Potrace colour separations, exact palette.
- Spot — a handful of flat colours, screen-print-separation style.
- Gradient — shaded / painted / 3D-looking art. Reproduces shading as real SVG gradient fills (linear & radial), with flat areas staying flat & crisp — flat + gradient combined in one trace.
3 · Dial it in
- Threshold (B&W) — the black/white cut-off. Slide to capture more or less of the image as black.
- Colors (Color/Spot) — how many colours in the result. All = every distinct tone.
- Detail · Despeckle — higher keeps fine detail; lower drops tiny specks & noise.
- Smoothing — higher = flowing rounded curves; lower = crisp, sharp corners.
- Colour boost — punch up muted colours (e.g. soft reds) before tracing, so they come through stronger.
- Geometry — Curves for organic art (mascots, flowers); Straight for crosses, text & geometric logos.
4 · Fix the source (Preprocess)
- Upscale — enlarge small/soft art before tracing (free).
- Denoise — clean speckle & JPEG noise.
- Remove background — drop a flat background to transparent.
- ✨ AI Upscale — rescue a junky / low-res / blurry upload. AI cleanly enlarges & sharpens it, then re-traces. Best tool for bad inputs (~1¢ per click).
5 · Quality & export
- ★ Maximum Quality — highest-resolution colour trace (slower, larger file). Use for a hero design.
- ⚡ Re-trace — re-run the trace at full resolution any time.
- Download SVG — scales forever; use this for print, vinyl cutters & Cricut. Download PNG for a flat raster.
6 · Pro tips
- Clean, flat, high-contrast art traces best — fuzzy photos never vectorize perfectly (for any tracer).
- Silhouette? B&W + Remove background → a transparent 1-colour file, ready for vinyl or 1-colour screen print.
- Logo with text? Use Generate → Style: Logo / Text — it comes back as a true native vector.
- Screen-print separations? Use Spot or a low Colors count — each colour is its own layer.
- Bad upload? Hit AI Upscale first, then trace.
7 · Generate styles
The Style picker shapes the look and auto-picks the best AI model: logos & badges come back as clean native vectors; mascots & illustrations as rich art. Leave Model on Auto unless you want to force one.
Tip: press Esc or click outside to close. Every change re-traces automatically.