Trace a bitmap without installing Inkscape
Path > Trace Bitmap has earned its reputation. Inkscape is free and open source, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and its tracing dialog shows a live preview while you work. If you can install it, install it — this page is not an argument against that.
The searches that land here arrive with a "but" attached. A work laptop where what gets installed is somebody else's decision. A Chromebook. A borrowed desk. One logo that has to be traced before a meeting.
So this is the same errand, moved onto a server. A pixel image goes up, colour boundaries get measured and fitted with curves, and paths come back. Upload a PNG, JPEG or WEBP; take away SVG, PDF, EPS, DXF or PNG from one run, several together if you tick several, plus a ZIP. The SVG that comes back opens in Inkscape later, on a machine where you do have it.
Who this is for
Two things decide whether this errand wants a browser tab or an installer, and neither of them is a scoreboard.
The first is what happens after the trace. Inkscape hands you a document you can keep working on: move a node, delete a speck picked up off a scan, simplify a path, undo. That is a real advantage and this page does not have it. What comes back here is a finished file — when it is not what you had in mind you change a setting and run it again rather than reaching into the geometry. For artwork that needs a person in the loop, install the free one.
The second is where the file goes next. If that is a laser, a plotter or a CAD seat, the conversation turns to DXF. Inkscape can write DXF, through a save-as target with its own options and its own conventions about scale and layer naming — usually a round or two of trial and error before the cutting program is happy. Here it is a checkbox: DXF R2010 (AC1024), one layer per traced colour, named FILL_ plus the hex value. EPS and a vector PDF come from the same run.
None of which makes them rivals: trace in a tab on whatever machine you are at, then open the SVG in Inkscape back at your own desk.
Drop an image here
or click to choose one
How it works
- Upload the image you would have opened in Inkscape — one PNG, JPEG or WEBP per conversion.
- Set the colour count: 2 for line art or a stencil, 8 for a flat logo, higher only for shaded artwork.
- Tick the formats you want — SVG to keep editing, PDF or EPS for print, DXF for a cutter.
- Convert, then open the preview at full size and judge the colour count from it.
- Sign in with Google (free) to download. The files are free and carry no watermark.
Settings we suggest
The controls here are not the ones in the Trace Bitmap dialog. Colour count does most of the work and runs from 2 to 64. Two gives line art, a stencil or a silhouette: one colour against the background, roughly what a single scan covers. The preset is 8, enough for a flat logo or an icon of a few solid areas. Go higher only for shaded sources, and expect bands rather than a gradient: every band is a region with a real border.
Shape stacking is the one worth a minute. Regions are built as a planar arrangement: where two colours meet they share a single border curve instead of each drawing its own edge across the other. Cut-outs then removes from every shape whatever sits above it, so each region is a closed contour, nothing overlaps and no sliver of background shows between neighbours — which matters when a blade follows those lines. Stacked leaves the lower shapes whole underneath.
Draw style picks filled shapes, stroked shapes or stroked edges; group by colour puts each colour in its own SVG group. A width and height in millimetres is carried by every vector format: the SVG and the DXF are written at that scale, and the PDF and EPS pages are laid out to the same measurement, converted to points. Leave it empty and the SVG and DXF come off the pixel grid at 96 px to 25.4 mm, while the PDF and EPS pages take their size from the pixel count.
Questions
Is this Inkscape running in my browser?
No — Inkscape is a desktop application; this is a separate tracer on a server. It is geometric rather than learned: it segments the picture into colour regions, uses an explicit anti-aliasing model to locate an edge the renderer blurred across two pixels, arranges the regions so neighbours share a border, then fits curves to them.
Should I just install Inkscape instead?
If you can install it and expect to edit the result afterwards, yes — it is free, open source, and node editing is exactly what it is for. Use this when installing is not an option, or when you want DXF, EPS and a vector PDF from one conversion.
Can I open the download in Inkscape?
Yes. It is SVG 1.1 with path elements and nothing exotic, so Inkscape, Illustrator, Affinity Designer and Figma all open it. Every traced shape arrives as a normal path you can edit, recolour or delete.
What exactly is inside the DXF?
DXF R2010 (AC1024), read by AutoCAD 2010 and later, Fusion 360, LightBurn and Inkscape itself. Inside are LWPOLYLINE runs and degree-3 SPLINE curves — outlines only, no filled geometry — with one layer per traced colour. Coordinates sit at millimetre scale and the header declares that unit ($INSUNITS = 4), so a cutting program opens the drawing at size without a scale conversation.
What can I upload, and how long does a trace take?
One image per conversion, as PNG, JPEG or WEBP, up to 25 MB and 40 megapixels. Anything above 1.5 megapixels is downscaled before tracing, so the output's pixel dimensions are the downscaled ones. Logos and stickers typically convert in 3–12 seconds in our local measurements; fine-line or noisy images take longer, and a conversion still running at 60 seconds stops and suggests fewer colours.
What does it cost, and what happens to my image?
It is free and nothing is watermarked. The preview appears before you sign in; the download button asks for a free Google sign-in. Signed out you get 10 conversions per hour, signed in 60 per hour and 300 per day. Download links expire after 1 hour, and uploaded images and generated files are removed by an automatic 1-day deletion rule.