GetSVG

PNG to vector, in your browser.

Scalable paths for print, cutting and embroidery. Free, and nothing is uploaded.

Drop a PNG, JPG or WebP
or paste from the clipboard
Best from 500 px wide, sharp edges, plain background
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PNG to vector, without uploading the file

The request almost always arrives the same way. A printer, a sign shop or an embroidery digitiser says they cannot use your PNG and need a vector. What they mean is that they need the artwork described as shapes rather than pixels, so it can be scaled, separated into colours, or turned into a cut path.

Drop your PNG above and you will have that file in a few seconds. Free, no account, and the image is traced on your own computer rather than sent anywhere.

Why a PNG gets rejected

A PNG is a fixed grid of pixels. It has one resolution, decided when it was exported, and three consequences follow from that:

  • It cannot be enlarged. Scale a 500 pixel logo up to a shop front and the edges turn soft and blocky, because there is no more information in the file.
  • It cannot be separated. Screen printing and vinyl work need each colour as its own shape. In a PNG the colours are just neighbouring pixels with no boundary the machine can follow.
  • It has no cut path. A cutter or laser needs an outline to trace. A raster image gives it nothing to follow, so the operator has to draw one by hand or refuse the job.

Tracing solves all three at once by finding those boundaries and describing them as curves.

Getting the best result from a PNG

PNG is the best raster input a tracer can be given. It is lossless, so the edges are exactly as they were exported, with none of the noise a JPEG picks up, and it often carries a transparent background already.

  1. Use the largest PNG you can find. A thousand pixels across or more is ideal. Look for the logo in a PDF, in a press kit, or in the site header at twice the displayed size before settling for a small copy.
  2. Let the preset stand unless the result is wrong. GetSVG profiles the pixels and chooses, and it is right most of the time.
  3. Check the thin parts with the Paths overlay. Hairlines are where tracing fails, and the overlay shows you immediately whether a stroke stayed continuous.
  4. Set exact brand colours before downloading. Click a swatch in the Colours section and type the hex value. Anti-aliasing shifts measured colours by a percent or two, and this fixes it without a re-trace.

Vector, SVG, EPS: which word do they mean?

"Vector" describes the kind of file. SVG, EPS, AI and PDF are all containers that can hold vector artwork. GetSVG gives you SVG, which every modern design tool opens and which most print suppliers now accept.

If your supplier insists on EPS or AI, open the SVG in Inkscape, which is free, and save as that format. The shapes are unchanged; only the wrapper differs. Do not let anyone tell you the trace has to be redone.

How to be sure it is genuinely a vector

Some converters return an SVG that simply contains your PNG embedded whole, which is why print shops sometimes reject a file that has the right extension. Switch on Paths here and you will see every outline and anchor point drawn over the result before you download anything. If you want to test a file from somewhere else, the guide to spotting a fake SVG covers three quick checks.

Related: image to vector, PNG to SVG, andlogo to vector.

How PNG to vector works in GetSVG

  1. Drop, paste or choose a picture. PNG, JPG or WebP. The file is read by your browser and is not uploaded.
  2. GetSVG picks a preset. It looks at the pixels — how many colours, how soft the edges are, how much plain background — and chooses Clean logo, Hairline, Brush, Sketch, Illustration or Artwork. Every other setting follows from that.
  3. The tracer runs. For each colour a mask is built and Potrace fits smooth Bézier curves to its outline, in a Web Worker so the page stays responsive. Re-tracing after a settings change keeps the previous result on screen until the new one is ready.
  4. Check it is real geometry. Turn on Paths to see outlines and anchor points, or drag the Split handle to compare original and vector.
  5. Download. SVG grouped per colour, PNG at 1×/2×/4×, or copy the SVG code.

What you get

  • Editable paths, not an embedded bitmap. The SVG contains only <path> elements with cubic Bézier curves.
  • One group per colour. Each colour is a <g fill="#…">, so one click selects a whole colour in Illustrator, Figma or Inkscape.
  • A tight view box. Empty space around the artwork is trimmed automatically, with a small safety margin.
  • Transparent background on request. The dominant border colour is detected and removed.
  • Real gradients when you want them. In Full colour mode, Smooth fits a linear gradient across a faded region and writes a genuine <linearGradient>.

Questions

Is converting a PNG to vector the same as converting it to SVG?

In practice, yes. SVG is the vector format you get. People say 'vector' when they mean the concept of scalable shapes and 'SVG' when they mean the file, but for this conversion they describe the same job.

Why does my printer say a PNG is not acceptable?

Because a PNG is a fixed grid of pixels. Enlarge it for a banner or a vehicle wrap and the edges go soft, and it cannot be separated into spot colours for printing or cut lines for vinyl. A vector has neither limitation.

Does PNG transparency carry through to the vector?

Yes. Transparent areas are treated as background, and the resulting file contains no background rectangle, so it drops cleanly onto any colour.

Will the colours in my PNG be preserved?

Yes. Colours are measured from the pixels rather than assumed, so a navy logo stays navy rather than becoming black. You can also click any colour swatch and type an exact brand hex before downloading.

My PNG is a screenshot. Will that vectorize?

It can, if the artwork is reasonably large and not blurry. Crop away the surrounding interface first, and if you can retake the screenshot on a high-resolution display, do so; twice the pixels makes a visible difference to the edges.

How long does it take?

Usually about a second, and it happens on your own computer rather than in a queue on someone's server. There is nothing to upload and nothing to wait for.