To convert an image to a vector you trace it. Software reads the pixels in your JPG or PNG and redraws them as mathematical paths, which you then export as SVG, EPS, AI, or PDF. Nothing inside a raster file is secretly vector already; tracing builds new shapes from scratch by guessing at the edges it can see.
Below is how to convert image to vector using six real tools, from a one click online tracer to Adobe Illustrator's Image Trace, plus the honest part most tool pages skip: tracing shines on logos and line art and struggles on photographs, so picking the right method and the right export format matters more than the click itself. For the other file conversions on this site, start at the image conversion hub.
What does converting an image to a vector really mean?
Converting an image to a vector means turning pixels into paths, a process called tracing or vectorization. A raster to vector conversion does not recover hidden data; it reads the colored dots in your file and draws new lines and curves that approximate the shapes those dots form. The result is a fresh vector object that happens to look like your original.
The reason this matters is scaling. A raster image is a grid of pixels, so enlarging it just makes each pixel bigger and the whole thing blurs. A vector graphic is described mathematically, which means it "can be rendered at any size without loss of quality" (MDN Web Docs). That is the whole point of the exercise: a logo you can print on a business card and a billboard from the same file.
Why a PNG or JPEG is never a vector
A PNG or a JPEG is always a raster file, no matter what you name it. Both formats store a fixed grid of pixels, so neither can be a vector, and neither scales up without blurring. When people ask whether they can convert JPG to vector, the honest answer is that you are not converting the pixels; you are tracing over them to make something new. The original JPEG stays exactly what it was, a photograph made of dots.
Which vector format should you export: SVG, AI, EPS, or PDF?
Tracing gets you paths, but the file is only useful in the format your next tool actually reads, and the four common vector formats are not interchangeable. SVG is text based and renders directly in any browser, the right choice for the web. AI is Illustrator's native format, fully editable but tied to that one app. EPS is the older format that print shops and legacy publishing software still expect. PDF is the universal container that opens without design software at all.
| Format | Best for | Opens without design software? | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| SVG | Web graphics, icons, UI | Yes, any browser | Websites, app icons, favicons |
| AI | Ongoing edits in Illustrator | No, Illustrator native | Active design projects |
| EPS | Print production, older tools | Mostly, legacy DTP apps | Print shops, older pipelines |
| Handing a finished vector to anyone | Yes, any PDF reader | Client and printer handoff |
Both Illustrator and Inkscape export to any of these once you have traced paths on the canvas. The format decision happens at Save As or Export, not during tracing, so pick the format your destination needs before you start. Re-exporting later is easy, but choosing wrong up front just costs you an extra round trip.
How to convert image to vector: the six methods
There are six realistic ways to trace a raster into a vector, and they trade control for speed. An online vectorizer is fastest with the least tuning; Illustrator gives the most control at a price; Inkscape sits in the middle for free; Photoshop and Affinity are the two tools people search for that do not do this job the way you expect; Canva is the beginner route.
| Tool | Cost | Control | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online vectorizer | Free or freemium | Low | A fast one off logo trace |
| Adobe Illustrator | Paid | High | Precise, editable results |
| Inkscape | Free | Medium | Free work with real settings |
| Canva | Free tier | Low | Beginners already in Canva |
| Photoshop | Paid | Limited | Not a true auto tracer |
| Affinity Designer | Paid | Manual only | Redraw by hand, no auto trace |
Method 1: A one click online vectorizer
An online vectorizer runs the whole job in a browser tab with nothing to install. You upload a JPG or PNG, the site auto traces it, and you download a vector file, usually SVG by default. There is no Mode, Threshold, or Noise slider to tune, which is the trade: you get speed and lose control. It is fine for a quick logo trace and a poor match for anything that needs adjustment, because you cannot nudge a setting and retry the way you can in a desktop app.
Method 2: Adobe Illustrator Image Trace
Illustrator's Image Trace is the paid, most controllable route, and its documentation describes it as the way "to convert raster images into editable vector graphics" (Adobe Help Center).
- Place your raster image with File, then Place.
- Select it, then run Image Trace from the Contextual Task Bar for a one click default, or open Window, then Image Trace for full control.
- Pick a preset. Enhanced presets add gradients, transparency, and auto grouping for you; Legacy presets leave each of those to you to set.
- Tune the panel. Mode switches between Color, Grayscale, and Black and White; in Black and White, "all lighter pixels turn white, and all darker pixels turn black." Paths controls how tightly the trace fits, Corners how many corners it keeps, and Noise sets the pixel area ignored while tracing, roughly 20 to 50 on a high resolution source and 1 to 10 on a low resolution one (Adobe Help Center).
- Click Expand to get real, editable vector paths, then export in the format you chose above.
- If the result is unusable, Object, then Image Trace, then Release restores the original raster.
Illustrator warns when a source is wider or taller than 1500 pixels. It still traces, only more slowly, so treat that as a heads up rather than a hard wall.
Method 3: Inkscape Trace Bitmap (free)
Inkscape is free, open source, and its Trace Bitmap tool is the most common no cost route to a real vector with actual settings.
- Import your image, select it, and open Trace Bitmap with Shift, Alt, B.
- Choose a Single scan mode: Brightness cutoff for a silhouette, Edge detection for outlines, Color quantization for color region borders, or Centerline for handwriting and line drawings. Switch to Multiple scans for a full color result built from stacked paths.
- Click Update to preview, OK to apply, then File, then Save As to export. Inkscape writes SVG natively and can also save EPS or PDF, so the format table above still applies here.
Expect an approximation, not a perfect copy. The Inkscape guide is blunt about it: if you expect "a 100% faithful representation" of a detailed source, "you will be disappointed" (Inkscape Beginners' Guide). That is the same tradeoff Illustrator makes, wearing a different interface.
Method 4: Canva's vectorizer
Canva is the beginner route if you already work there. You upload your image into a design, open the photo editing tools, run the vectorizer app, choose full color or black and white, convert, and download the result as an SVG. It is genuinely simple, and it is genuinely limited: there are no trace sliders, the SVG export sits behind a Canva account, and there is no offline option. For a quick social graphic it is enough. For a logo you will keep editing, you will outgrow it fast.
Method 5: Photoshop, and its real limits
Photoshop is the tool most people reach for and the wrong one for a true trace. Photoshop is a raster editor first: it can build vector shapes with the Pen tool and turn a selection into a work path through the Paths panel, but it has no automatic raster to vector tracer like Illustrator's Image Trace. In practice that means Photoshop is good for hand drawing a clean path over a simple shape and exporting it, and poor for converting a detailed image to vector in one move. If you have the full Adobe suite, do the trace in Illustrator and treat Photoshop as the place you clean up the source first. None of the top tool pages tell you this, which is why so many people burn an afternoon looking for a trace button in Photoshop that is not there.
Method 6: Affinity Designer, what it can and can't do
Affinity Designer is a capable, one time purchase vector app, and it also does not include an automatic image tracer. You can redraw a shape by hand over a placed image using the Pen and Node tools, which is precise but manual, or you can trace elsewhere in Inkscape or Illustrator and bring the finished SVG into Affinity to refine. If you own Affinity and expected an Image Trace equivalent, that gap is the answer to a question the ranking tool pages leave out entirely. For clean geometric work the manual redraw is often the better result anyway, which is the next section.
What can image tracing actually do, and where does it fail?
Tracing suits flat, high contrast source material: logos, icons, line drawings, anything with clean edges and few colors. It fails on photographs. A tracing engine only sees pixels and cannot reconstruct the continuous detail a camera sensor captured, so autotracing a photo to scale it up "most likely fails," because "the pixels in your image can only be made into shapes" (Adobe Help Center). The chart below is really a rule of thumb: the simpler and flatter the source, the better the trace.
| Source type | Traces well? | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Logo or icon, few colors | Yes | Clean paths, close to the original |
| Line art or handwriting | Yes | Centerline modes shine here |
| Grayscale artwork | Yes | Fewer colors means a simpler map |
| Gradient or soft shading | Poorly | Bands of flat color, no smooth blend |
| Photograph | No | A rough illustration, not a sharper photo |
Two specific things never survive a trace. Gradients do not, because "the function can't generate gradients" and approximates one with neighboring solid color shapes instead, fine from across the room and obviously wrong up close. Fine detail does not either, since "details in artworks almost always get lost" as the tracer compromises between accuracy and smooth, editable paths.
Prep your source before you trace
A cleaner source traces cleaner. Before you run any tracer, delete unneeded elements, remove dust and scratches, and drop faint background colors in an image editor, and keep a little anti aliasing on the edges so the tracer produces smoother curves. Grayscale sources trace especially well, since removing color leaves a simpler brightness map to work from.
This is the one place the compressor on this site helps a trace rather than replacing it. A big scanned logo sheet or exported mockup often runs large, and a lossless pass through the compressor here shrinks a PNG without touching a single pixel the tracer will read. Do not re-save a JPG at lower quality first, though: that adds compression artifacts a tracer reads as real edges and reproduces as extra, wrong paths.
Does the compressor on this site convert images to vector?
No, and it is not on the roadmap. This tool compresses and converts between four raster formats, JPG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF, and tracing pixels into vector paths is a different job done by software built for exactly that. A compressor makes a raster file smaller; a tracer makes a new vector object. They are not the same operation and no honest page should pretend one does the other.
Where it does earn its place is before the trace, as prep. The free tier takes images up to 25 MB and strips EXIF metadata by default, which is plenty of headroom for a scanned logo or a screenshot you are about to vectorize. Compress the source losslessly, trace the clean version, and you skip a whole category of artifact problems.
When should you redraw a vector by hand instead?
Redraw by hand when precision beats speed. Auto tracing is the wrong tool for exact geometric shapes, precise triangles, hexagons, or straight architectural lines, because the software "just sees a bunch of pixels" and approximates edges statistically, where a person can place a perfectly straight line in Illustrator or Affinity in seconds. For a geometric logo, "you'd better do it manually" (Adobe Help Center).
Skip tracing altogether if your source is a photograph you need to keep looking like a photograph. Vector paths cannot hold continuous tonal detail, so the output reads as a flat illustration, not a sharper photo. The most experienced designers reach the same conclusion the hard way: for complex artwork, a careful manual redraw still beats any auto trace. It is slower, and it is the honest answer nobody selling a one click tool wants to give.