5 ms·

Vtracer: Next-Gen Raster-to-Vector Conversion

153 points by s1291 3y ago

rootlocus 3y ago
Maybe now Affinity Designer can introduce a tracing feature and further catch up to Adobe Illustrator.
- wiz21c 3y ago
  and inkscape
devit 3y ago
Maybe Facebook's Segment Anything could replace the first clustering step?
- spaceprison 3y ago
  I had a similar idea the other day after fighting with inkscape tracing! The problem with auto tracing is lack of content awareness so it's just shapes and colors leading to strange objects that require lots of tinkering. I'm going to try it: Use segment anything to get object masks, Trace each object separately and combine from there!
  - larodi 3y ago
    It may be much slower, though segment-anything works quite okay from my tests. But still - great work, cant wait to use it in my next design. :D
  - ttul 3y ago
    This would make for a nice ComfyUI custom node.
  - westurner 3y ago
    > Comparing to Potrace which only accept binarized inputs (Black & White pixmap), VTracer has an image processing pipeline which can handle colored high resolution scans. tl;dr: Potrace uses a O(n^2) fitting algorithm, whereas vtracer is entirely O(n). What is the Big-O of the algorithm with Segment Anything or other segmentation approaches? Potrace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrace The Ctrl-L to Simplify Inkscape feature attempts to describe the same path with fewer points/bezier curves. Could this approach also help with 3d digitization?
    - westurner 3y ago
      TIL about https://github.com/fogleman/primitive https://github.com/fogleman/primitive from "Comparison of raster-to-vector conversion software" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_raster-to-vector_conversion_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_raster-to-vector... which does already list vtracer (2020) visioncortex/vtracer: https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer Vector graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics Rotoscoping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping Sprite (computer graphics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics) E.g. pygame-web can do SVG sprites; so that you don't have to do pixel art and sprite scaling just works. 2.5D: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D 3D scanning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanning "Why Cities: Skylines 2 performs poorly" (2023) ... No AutoLOD Level of Depth https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38160089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38160089 Wavetale is a 3D game with extensive and visually impressive vector graphics.
raphlinus 3y ago
For the generation of simplified Bézier paths, I hope they consider the new methods in kurbo[1]. These have some fairly fancy math behind them and result in pretty close to a global optimum in terms of the minimal number of segments needed to hit an error target. They don't do implicit low-pass filtering, rather treat the input as a source of truth, but perhaps options could be added for that. [1]: https://docs.rs/kurbo/latest/kurbo/simplify/index.html https://docs.rs/kurbo/latest/kurbo/simplify/index.html
Animats 3y ago
It doesn't seem to do all that well on blueprint type line art.[1] It seems to do a lot better when it has areas to separate. Which is not surprising, considering the approach. This is about as well as I was doing on scanned engineering drawings in 1983. I wrote Autodesk's CAD/Camera. 20 minutes of compute to process a drawing on an IBM PC/AT. You can be too early. By now, a product in that space should be recognizing not just lines, but dimensions, and generating a properly dimensioned CAD model. [1] https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer/blob/master/docs/images/screenshot-01.png https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer/blob/master/docs/ima...
- ska 3y ago
  > You can be too early. Yes, yes you can. I worked on a project than included hardware are related workflow for digitizing analog input to essentially a digital image processing workflow, just because the digital sensors weren't quite there yet. A few years later, they were.
- dylan604 3y ago
  >You can be too early. I can sympathize. In the early/mid-90s when Apple released QuickTimeVR, a buddy of mine and I tried to start an early VR real estate virtual tour company. Realtors of the time had no idea, and the internet was still too new for people to really grok the concept. Early DSLR writing to floppy disks just put that little cherry on top
  - Animats 3y ago
    Right. I knew about convolution back then, but with an 80286, 640KB, no FPU, and E-size drawings at 300 DPI, there just wasn't enough compute power.
andrewstuart 3y ago
This is the most impressive raster to vector I have seen: https://vectormagic.com https://vectormagic.com Vtracer doesn't seem to do as well.
- icyfox 3y ago
  This is the best I've found as well. They also have a new offering (different internal model, similar quality evidently) that I've used back when it was in a free unlimited trial. Not sure the status right now: https://vectorizer.ai/ https://vectorizer.ai/
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  I use Adobe Illustrator for the fairly rare occasions that I need to do it. Since I already have it, and use it to generate almost all my graphic assets, it makes sense.
  - solardev 3y ago
    IME VectorMagic does a much better job on more complex drawings.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
      That may definitely be the case. I haven’t fed AI any really complex drawings. However, there’s a lot of knobs and buttons on AI’s raster tracer.
convivialdingo 3y ago
There's a lot of handwritten texts out there. I spent a few months transcribing my great-great grandmother's journals as a military wife in the late 19the century. It was an enormous task - I'd spend an hour or two a week and got though a few dozen pages. I used potrace and autotrace to darken the faded text strokes - I should give this a try and see if it can do a better job.
steponlego 3y ago
Rust needs some first class "best in the world" programs. Currently it has none.

153 points by s1291 3y ago

rootlocus 3y ago

Maybe now Affinity Designer can introduce a tracing feature and further catch up to Adobe Illustrator.

wiz21c 3y ago
and inkscape

devit 3y ago

Maybe Facebook's Segment Anything could replace the first clustering step?

spaceprison 3y ago
I had a similar idea the other day after fighting with inkscape tracing! The problem with auto tracing is lack of content awareness so it's just shapes and colors leading to strange objects that require lots of tinkering. I'm going to try it: Use segment anything to get object masks, Trace each object separately and combine from there!
- larodi 3y ago
  It may be much slower, though segment-anything works quite okay from my tests. But still - great work, cant wait to use it in my next design. :D
- ttul 3y ago
  This would make for a nice ComfyUI custom node.
- westurner 3y ago
  > Comparing to Potrace which only accept binarized inputs (Black & White pixmap), VTracer has an image processing pipeline which can handle colored high resolution scans. tl;dr: Potrace uses a O(n^2) fitting algorithm, whereas vtracer is entirely O(n). What is the Big-O of the algorithm with Segment Anything or other segmentation approaches? Potrace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrace The Ctrl-L to Simplify Inkscape feature attempts to describe the same path with fewer points/bezier curves. Could this approach also help with 3d digitization?
  - westurner 3y ago
    TIL about https://github.com/fogleman/primitive https://github.com/fogleman/primitive from "Comparison of raster-to-vector conversion software" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_raster-to-vector_conversion_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_raster-to-vector... which does already list vtracer (2020) visioncortex/vtracer: https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer Vector graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics Rotoscoping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping Sprite (computer graphics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics) E.g. pygame-web can do SVG sprites; so that you don't have to do pixel art and sprite scaling just works. 2.5D: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.5D 3D scanning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanning "Why Cities: Skylines 2 performs poorly" (2023) ... No AutoLOD Level of Depth https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38160089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38160089 Wavetale is a 3D game with extensive and visually impressive vector graphics.

raphlinus 3y ago

For the generation of simplified Bézier paths, I hope they consider the new methods in kurbo[1]. These have some fairly fancy math behind them and result in pretty close to a global optimum in terms of the minimal number of segments needed to hit an error target. They don't do implicit low-pass filtering, rather treat the input as a source of truth, but perhaps options could be added for that. [1]: https://docs.rs/kurbo/latest/kurbo/simplify/index.html https://docs.rs/kurbo/latest/kurbo/simplify/index.html

Animats 3y ago

It doesn't seem to do all that well on blueprint type line art.[1] It seems to do a lot better when it has areas to separate. Which is not surprising, considering the approach. This is about as well as I was doing on scanned engineering drawings in 1983. I wrote Autodesk's CAD/Camera. 20 minutes of compute to process a drawing on an IBM PC/AT. You can be too early. By now, a product in that space should be recognizing not just lines, but dimensions, and generating a properly dimensioned CAD model. [1] https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer/blob/master/docs/images/screenshot-01.png https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer/blob/master/docs/ima...

ska 3y ago
> You can be too early. Yes, yes you can. I worked on a project than included hardware are related workflow for digitizing analog input to essentially a digital image processing workflow, just because the digital sensors weren't quite there yet. A few years later, they were.
dylan604 3y ago
>You can be too early. I can sympathize. In the early/mid-90s when Apple released QuickTimeVR, a buddy of mine and I tried to start an early VR real estate virtual tour company. Realtors of the time had no idea, and the internet was still too new for people to really grok the concept. Early DSLR writing to floppy disks just put that little cherry on top
- Animats 3y ago
  Right. I knew about convolution back then, but with an 80286, 640KB, no FPU, and E-size drawings at 300 DPI, there just wasn't enough compute power.

andrewstuart 3y ago

This is the most impressive raster to vector I have seen: https://vectormagic.com https://vectormagic.com Vtracer doesn't seem to do as well.

icyfox 3y ago
This is the best I've found as well. They also have a new offering (different internal model, similar quality evidently) that I've used back when it was in a free unlimited trial. Not sure the status right now: https://vectorizer.ai/ https://vectorizer.ai/
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
I use Adobe Illustrator for the fairly rare occasions that I need to do it. Since I already have it, and use it to generate almost all my graphic assets, it makes sense.
- solardev 3y ago
  IME VectorMagic does a much better job on more complex drawings.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
    That may definitely be the case. I haven’t fed AI any really complex drawings. However, there’s a lot of knobs and buttons on AI’s raster tracer.

convivialdingo 3y ago

There's a lot of handwritten texts out there. I spent a few months transcribing my great-great grandmother's journals as a military wife in the late 19the century. It was an enormous task - I'd spend an hour or two a week and got though a few dozen pages. I used potrace and autotrace to darken the faded text strokes - I should give this a try and see if it can do a better job.

steponlego 3y ago

Rust needs some first class "best in the world" programs. Currently it has none.