Dec 02
Reviewing Vector Magic, a vector tracing application
2008 at 11.45 am posted by Veerle Pieters
Sometimes readers mail me with the question on what’s the best approach to trace logos or illustrations. They ask if I do it with the Pen tool. Yes, I do, but I have been using this tool for more than 15 years. So it’s safe to say I’m very routined. Still, there are certain situations that I wish there was a tool that could do the job for me. Let’s say on a occasion that you don’t have the time or budget to charge the time needed to redraw company logos that are delivered in jpeg or gif format. The Live Trace option in Illustrator isn’t bad, but it doesn’t give me the expected result on most try-outs (too many nodes or noisy result, path imperfections…) . Recently the developers of an application called Vector Magic gave me the chance to test out their desktop app. Here is a short review…
Vector Magic?
Maybe the name rings a bell for you as it did for me? Yes, it is that online free web-app that started at Stanford University and got rave reviews online. Now they transitioned away from Stanford to explore the commercial route and build a desktop application with the technology.
First impressions
In my opinion, Vector Magic is a great tool if you want to save time in tracing flat colored artwork or if you need to convert a low resolution jpeg or gif into a vector illustration. It's an easy tool to use as it is very user-friendly, and in my opinion, I would even say it is self-explanatory. Certainly after you've watched the 4 online movies. The application takes you through the logical steps that are needed to be able to provide you with the best possible results.
Wizard Modes to choose from
There are 3 ways you can trace your image:
- Fully Automatic
- Basic
- Advanced
The GUI
This application's graphical interface doesn't feel like a traditional Mac interface, but more like a ported Windows application. I believe this part could be improved. This is of course the designer inside me talking :) Though, it needs to be said that this interface doesn't get in your way while working with the tool, because the overal UI is actually very good. The position of the buttons, the tools, or the way you can navigate through the different steps is all very logical. Everything is approached in an easy step-by-step process and things are very clear, logical and well explained.
Vector Magic tracing exercises
For this review I tried out 4 situations:
- Tracing from a black & white logo
- Tracing from a sketch
- Tracing from flat color artwork
- Tracing from a photo
Tracing from a black & white logo
For this example I typed the example text 'Vector Magic' in my font manager application in a typeface called Salut at a size of 152pt. Then I took a screengrab of it ad saved it as a gif. The total dimension is 912 by 215 pixels.
Here I chose the first mode 'Fully Automatic' which gave me a perfect result. Of course I started with a clean file. This only took less than a minute.
Once the image is traced the application gives you the option to review the results and do some corrections if needed. If the result is too jaggy, you can choose low quality. If there are details lost, you can choose for high quality.
If, like in this situation, the image shows small errors, you can click the 'Edit Result' images.
It is really pretty easy. All is very well explained in this short movie.
As you can see the application corrected this segment perfectly. All I had to do is save it to EPS.
The EPS file opened in Illustrator as shown in selected and unselected state.
Tracing from a sketch
For this exercise I chose one of my Moleskine doodles which I had scanned and converted into greyscale. Again, this is an easy image to trace since I want to keep the freehand style. Here I chose the 'Basic Mode' where the application will guide you through these few basic steps: 'Type of Image', 'Input Quality' and 'Color Mode'.
I changed the Levels a bit in Photoshop so it was optimal to trace into 1 flat color.
The review result screen gives you different 'troubleshoot' options in case you need to improve the results.
I can zoom in to see how things look.
You can turn 'Paths' on to see the different nodes.
Tracing from flat color artwork
For this test I exported a logo I designed in Illustrator to a low resolution jpeg file.
This logo has a lot of different color so this seemed suited for a tracing test. Again, I chose the 'Basic Mode' and went through the different steps.
Once arrived at the last step where you need to define the color mode, I opted for 'Fixed Colors'. The application extracted the exact colors of the logo which it recommended for the 'Palette Selection'. Here you can add, remove or change colors if you like. I clicked the 'Next' button and the logo got traced in less than a minute.
The final result is very precise.
Here is the results with 'Paths' turned on so you see the nodes.
Also the text looks perfect.
Tracing from a photo
In the last exercise I thought I experiment a with a photo and try out the Advanced Mode. The image I use is a colorful stillive photo saved as a small jpeg of 609 x 856 pixels.
First step you get after clicking the 'Advanced' button is the 'Palette Selection' where you need to choose your 'Color Mode'. Here I chose for 'Flexible Colors' which means the application will extract the colors from the image.
The next step is the 'Image Segmentation'. I chose for fewer segments for the 'Complexity' and 'Moderate' for 'Anti-aliasing' option. The rest I left untouched
Last comes the 'Path Smoothing' where I opted for 'Smoothness' of 2 and 3 as 'Number of Nodes'.
The rendering took a bit more time because of the complexity of the image, but the result is interesting and artistic. I'm sure you can achieve beautiful artwork if you invest in trying different settings out.
Conclusion
I'm positively surprised in how this application works and the results it produces. Even though this application is just focussed on tracing and converting bitmaps into vector-based images, I believe it is worth its value. Just think about the time you can save with this. If you do convert a bunch of logos from low res images, or trace a picture that would otherwise take hours to create the application paid itself back in no time. I just believe for this price, the developers should hire a designer ala Wolfgang Bartelme to give the desktop application that specific Mac feel & touch. If you don't want the desktop application, you can also subscribe to the online edition.
19served
1
Amazing tool! I would like to have this one as a standalone application.
2
Maybe, the free app Cocoapotrace (only for OSX!) can be better. Try it: http://mortimer.hp.infoseek.co.jp/iweb/index.html
3
I just visited vectormagic.com and your examples are clearer than theirs :)
I only wish that people keep the ai file or at least have a high res logo rather than the 15kb that is copied and paste.. anyway, good visiting your blog after being away for some time.
4
Quite an impressive service, and I quite like the UI, though I’d say it’s quite like a typical Flex app, which as you say, is a little more like a Windows app than Mac-based.
Thanks for sharing.
5
Veerle, as a somewhat Ai greenhorn (newbie), can you briefly explain how this application fits in with, or differs from, the Live Trace capability of Ai. Thanks.
6
VERY spooky, was just looking at Vector Magic and flicked over to your blog, only to see this article!!! I’ve used Vecor Magic to produce a couple of great logos, which I put together first in Photoshop…the results were great for me as I find Illustrator difficult…highly recommend this tool!
7
I know the tool from when it was a free online service. I think it’s a great tool. Had very good results several times. I’ll consider buying the desktop version!
8
Dima said:
It *is* a standalone application :)
Mei said:
This application is no match for Vector Magic since it has almost no options to play with and the result is really bad with too many nodes and noise as you can see in the screenshot. If you play with limiting the settings to get less nodes you loose details. If I don’t use the pen tool myself I want the results to be as close as possible as I would use the pen and this app doesn’t deliver that. Good for a beginner/amateur who doesn’t care about too many nodes but not for a pro like me. I like my vectors clean and smooth :)
billseymour said:
Vector Magic delivers more accurate trace results and like I mentioned above very few nodes (the dots/points in blue) and clean paths. To me it is really important that there are as less nodes as possible because that’s the way I would trace it with the pen tool myself. Less nodes means cleaner paths and curves, better handling on the computer due to a smaller file size and flexible to edit when you need to modify the path again. This desktop app is geared towards the pro Illustrator where those things matter and not the home user that wants to trace a photo and paste it in Photoshop and be done with it.
9
I used this when Stanford allowed people to use it online for free. This app works so much faster than the live trace tool in Illustrator.
10
I used the online tool from the start, then bought the standalone application. It saved me hours and hours of work.
No Mac feel & touch, but at least it delivers what I expect from such a product.
Highly recommended !
11
Thank you for this review, like many others I struggle with the live trace, it is nice to have another option that I don’t have to buy right away. I really appreciate your in-depth directions, it also shows me the benefits to the desktop version.
12
I too used Vector Magic back when Stanford allowed it for free. I was a little disappointed at how fast they jumped into monetizing it, so have steered clear. But it’s definately a superior quality tool.
I had been waiting for the desktop application but I still think it’s a little pricey. From a marketing perspective if they dropped their price down to AUD$199 for desktop I think they would probably do better - a wider net with smaller cost to the user. One of the parts of their monetization that annoyed me in the beginning was a large rant they had about the cost justification based solely on the user’s “expected hourly rate” as if everyone out there is a high end designer pulling big dollars. That did lose me a bit, to be honest.
I agree entirely about the interfaces, asking that price (half of Photoshop?) for an application with very rudimentary looking interfaces - regardless of it being good - is a little cheeky, too. Just my 2 cents in passing.
Don’t get me wrong, love the tool but do have some issues with how these guys figure out what to charge and how they seem a little greedy in the short term when they’d make lots of money with a broader gameplan.
Anyway, great to see they’ve made the desktop application and thanks for the review.
13
Great in depth review, I’ve personally been using vector magic for sometime now and I’m always amazed how quick and accurate the results are.
14
Like Stacy, I too used it when it debuted and I love it. I haven’t used it in forever, but I love the look of photos vectorized w/ it. So much better than LiveTrace (IMO). I never used it to trace text, and I was surprised by the results shown in the review.
15
Thanks for the interesting find! In my work, I take programs Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw X4. When I had to make a trace bitmap to vector, I used the Power Trace (built into Corel Draw). But it is not always the result I like.
And with the help of Magic Vector, I got better than I expected - will enjoy further. Thanks again!
16
I haven’t touched this application since it went from free to paid. I agree it is far superior to Illustrator’s Live Trace function.
I can only hope that Adobe will one day see the need for a better tracing component in Illustrator that puts Vector Magic to rest.
Not saying I want Vector Magic to disappear… I think really what I’m saying is that for the amount of money we pay for Adobe’s products, and considering the arsenal of professional programmers Adobe has, their Live Trace function should do just as well as, if not better than, Vector Magic.
In the interim, I’ll have to skip back over to Vector Magic and peek at what they’re asking. It is a worthy program… as a person who does a lot of ad designs for a multitude of businesses, it is a very handy tool to take care of those clients who can’t seem to locate the vector version of their logos.
17
Looks great, but asking $295 is just crazy. A whole Illustrator upgrade only costs $199. This is like a $20 or $30 app.
18
Thanks for the great review Veerle! It’s very useful to know what some of the best tools out there can do! Too bad Vector Magic is so pricey!
19
Yes I love this “service” I say service because, I use it, I could have bought the download version but instead of my computer doing all the work I decided to use online version,saving me process time and computer speed.
For a few dollars a month I can use it,and it does the job,very satisfied in the results.
I highly recommend this product!!!!
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