When i’m designing a logo or even converting a logo, i am always swapping in and out of free png to vector software to convert my images back into a vector format(usually svg). I’ve tried many free png to vector converters and whilst the paid vector converters may have better functionality, I do find for what I need them for, the free versions are mostly just as good.

A few that i’ve noted, had to be tracked down way down the Google search on around page 2 or 3, so these little gems mostly go unnoticed.

I thought i’d give them a plug so you can add it to your bookmark toolbar and get some benefit out of these beauties.

Let’s start the list

Creative Fabrica Studio

Creative Fabrica has released a nifty vector and design studio, which I have been using lately as a Canva replacement, mainly because it has a nice vector converter all bundled directly into the interface. The conversion is very quick and works well with simple vectors and black and white images.

One thing I like about this is, is that’s its extremely easy to use – upload and convert. There are no settings to change the conversion settings, but from the examples i’ve uploaded, it does a decent job.

Vectordad

I stumbled on this one on around page 3 of Google, while looking for some better alternatives to converting some of my A.I images.

I’ve found VectorDad’s “Image to Vector” converter at vectordad.com/image-to-vector to to be a nice go-to free png to vector converter when i just want a straight black and white conversion, as it’s super easy to upload and has a quick download SVG button, so it’s a great time saver.

It does support adding colours to the conversion, although I haven’t tried this yet and have only concentrated on black and white and single coloured images, which have proven to be of decent quality

What I really appreciate is the speed of the conversion. Within moments, I get a high-quality vector file ready for resizing and various applications. This efficiency is crucial for meeting tight deadlines and streamlining my design process. The intuitive interface and quick results make it my go-to solution for transforming raster images into crisp, scalable vectors. For anyone looking for a hassle-free and rapid free png to vector vectorization tool, I highly recommend giving VectorDad a try.

The conversion below was nearly identical. Because the detail is quite simple, outlines are wide and also this is only a black and white image, the conversion was nearly exactly as it was when inputted.

Price : Freeware
Use : Unlimited conversions
Software : Browser based

Inkscape

Inkscape’s “Trace Bitmap” feature is a powerful tool for free png to vector converting and converting raster images into scalable vector graphics, making it an essential asset for any designer. This functionality allows users to import a bitmap image and automatically generate a vector version, which can be resized without losing quality.

The “Trace Bitmap” tool offers several options to customize the tracing process, including single and multiple scans. Users can choose from modes like “Brightness Cutoff,” “Edge Detection,” and “Color Quantization” to best capture the image’s details and colors. The interface is user-friendly, allowing for real-time adjustments to fine-tune the vector output.

Pretty much right off the bat, for black images that are simple, Inkscape’s bitmap trace function does a great job without the need to change any settings.

The great thing about Inkscape, is that it has variable options to smooth and optimize the output, which the other free image to vector software don’t include, and automatically do this for you.

It’s perfect for turning logos, illustrations, or even hand-drawn sketches into clean, editable vectors. This is a windows based software, so it is quite fast to render these images. Images can be saved in a variety of formats, but normally SVG is sufficient for the applications I use

Price : Freeware
Use : Unlimited conversions
Software : Windows based

vectorization.eu

A nice clean example of a simple free png to vector image to vector solution is vectorization.eu

You can’t get much simpler than this one. I have used this one on a few logo conversions because of it’s basic upload > convert > download workflow, which for very basic applications is all you need to get the job done.

Export files has 4 file types, but for the work I do SVG and PDF are sufficient enough to open in most of the graphics software I use on a day to day basis.

As you can see with the image below the conversion is quite basic and looks like it uses a simple brightness factor to do the conversions. There is a little bit of blowouts as you can see from an actual photo, and because of the limited controls to change any settings, this image to vector converter i would only use for monochrome logo conversion. Give it a try with black and white images and see what it turns out like.

Price : Freeware
Use : Unlimited conversions
Software : Windows based

pngtosvg

Pngtosvg is another nice image to vector converter which I only stumbled on in the last 6 months. For basic black and white conversions it’s actually one of the best i’ve seen. Although it’s very basic , it does have some functionality similar to https://vectorizer.ai/ which is a more of a premium vectorizer.

Although it does have a colour palette functionality, I have found that it is quite basic and defining which colours to stay in and which ones to remove is limited.

I have also found that when converting images that have original colours in them, the layering tends to screw up the image in more detailed images unless the original images is super hi-res.

As you can see with the preceding image, the quality of the image is actually one of the best automatic conversions that i’ve seen with a free image to vector converter. There is minimal jagged lines and overal quality is great.

svgconverter.app

Svgconverter.app is a great example of simplicity and effectively a useable fullscreen software that is easy to use. Whilst it doesn’t take too long to render, it also has some tools for making your image either more detailed or less detailed ,depending on what type of image you are using.

This is completely free and for a free software of this calibre ,it’s actually extremely impressive.

The image below was uite blurry when uploaded and svgconverter.app did a great job at averaging the conversion lines.

There are a few settings which you can adjust on this software like colour, bg transparency and detail quality, which for the more intricate images come in handy.

For a colour conversion, this is one of the best i’ve seen. I know this image is quite simple, but this would be a perfect solution for logo conversions of simple clipart which you need to converter and use as a vector file.

Thats a wrap. If you need anymore info on any of these or help with using these amazing examples of image to vector software, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Sam