Popular Applications
- In computer-aided design (CAD) drawings (blueprints etc.) are scanned, vectorized and written as CAD files in a process called paper-to-CAD conversion or drawing conversion.
- In geographic information systems (GIS) satellite or aerial images are vectorized to create maps.
- In graphic design and photography, graphics can be vectorized for easier usage and resizing.
Unlike the opposite process rasterization, vectorization is not well defined, meaning there is not a single correct method. Many different algorithms exist, and each gives different results, as vector representations are more abstract than pixels.
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A photograph in JPEG format, 25 KB
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The photograph at left vectorized with RaveGrid, 1.64 MB
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Same photograph vectorized with AutoTrace in the Delineate GUI, 677 KB
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Same photograph vectorized with Inkscape's "Trace Bitmap" function, based on potrace, 1.05 MB
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Same photograph vectorized with Scan2CAD, 340 KB
Read more about this topic: Vectorization (image Tracing)
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“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)