Review of Vector Magic – Create Vector Art from Digital Photos

The online version of Vector Magic is very simple and straightforward. From the product home page, all you have to do is click on the Upload Image to Trace button and then navigate to the directory on your computer that contains the digital photo you want to convert to a vector image. As an example for this review, we’ll use a photo of a fountain taken by Andrea Clay. (Click any image in this article for a larger view.)

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So, Vector Magic is easy to use, but what kind of results does it give? The screenshot below shows the resulting vector image in EPS format obtained from tracing the photo of the fountain using the high detail option with unlimited colors. I was certainly impressed with the result.

The next thing I was interested in was how easy the new vector image would be to edit. So, after downloading the resulting EPS file, I opened it up in Adobe Illustrator CS4 to take a look at the paths created in the vector representation. The final image consisted of 11962 points making up 1440 paths, all of which were closed. So, not only was the resulting vector image a beautiful representation, it was also extremely clean and easy to scale. The screenshot below shows the path outlines for this particular image.

I certainly liked this image much better than the mixed results I’ve received when using Illustrator’s built-in tracing functions.

Vector Magic offers a couple of different pricing options for the online version of the application. You can either subscribe and pay a monthly fee that allows you unlimited usage of the product or you can purchase tokens and pay for each tracing individually. The subscription plan runs $7.95 a month and is billed 3 months at a time.

If you don’t think you’ll use the service that often, you can purchase a bundle of 5, 10, or 20 tokens at one time. For instance, a package of 5 tokens runs $14.05. However, if you just want to try out the application and see what it can do, all you have to do is sign up at the Vector Magic web site and you’ll receive 2 free tokens that you can use to trace any two images.

The other alternative is to purchase the desktop version of the application that allows you to make all of your conversions offline on your PC. This version of Vector Magic runs $295 and is probably the most economical version of the product if you plan to use it for years to come. Also, the desktop version has a number of features and capabilities not found in the online version, such as transparency support, the ability to save output as AI and DXF files, batch processing, and an advanced vectorization mode. If you think you’d be more interested in the desktop version, you can download a free trial of the application from the Vector Magic web site.

Vector Magic is a highly versatile application that provides excellent vector renderings of digital photographs and other raster images. If you’ve been looking for a highly functional tracing application that gives great results and is also extremely easy to use, definitely give Vector Magic a try. Pick out a couple of your favorite digital photos and take advantage of the free trial to see what kind of results you can obtain.