Potrace is a

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...

which converts

bitmapped upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...

images into

vector graphics Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...

. It is written and maintained by Peter Selinger.

Properties

Various graphical frontends are available for the command-line application Potrace. Notably, it has been integrated with

Inkscape Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Other formats can be imported and exported. Inkscape can render primitive vector shapes (e.g. rectang ...

, giving Inkscape its ''Trace Bitmap'' action. FontForge can use Potrace to import a bitmap image into a font. Potrace is also used by the

music engraving Music engraving is the art of drawing music notation at high quality for the purpose of mechanical reproduction. The term ''music copying'' is almost equivalent—though ''music engraving'' implies a higher degree of skill and quality, usually f ...

program

LilyPond LilyPond is a computer program and file format for music engraving. One of LilyPond's major goals is to produce scores that are engraved with traditional layout rules, reflecting the era when scores were engraved by hand. LilyPond is cross-pl ...

. Potrace's input and output is black and white (colored images are greyscaled before processing). However, Inkscape is capable of producing color images by decomposing each channel into several black and white images and tracing them separately with Potrace. The commercial Total Vectorize program also uses Potrace as its core. The program is dual-

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

as "Potrace" under the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

and as "Potrace Professional" in a proprietary license by Selinger's company, Icosasoft Software, Inc.Dual licensing program for Potrace
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Examples

Image:Polydactyly 01 Lhand AP.jpg, Source image

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...

grayscale In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a grayscale image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample representing only an ''amount'' of light; that is, it carries only intensity information. Graysca ...

(891×1,077 pixel, 119 KB) Image:6fingeredhand-potrace.svg, Traced with Potrace in Inkscape to an eight-color SVG image in 2006 (50 KB) Image:Polydactyly_01_Lhand_AP-vectorized-8color-new.svg, Traced with Potrace in Inkscape to an eight-color SVG image in 2012 (336 KB) Image:Polydactyly_01_Lhand_AP-vectorized-12color.svg, Traced with Potrace in Inkscape to a twelve-color SVG image in 2012 (608 KB) Image:Polydactyly_01_Lhand_AP-vectorized-16color.svg, Traced with Potrace in Inkscape to a sixteen-color SVG image in 2012 (743 KB)

References

External links

* {{official website, http://potrace.sourceforge.net on

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirrorin ...

* Vince Vatter
How to make slides from handwritten notes using potrace

Online version of Potrace
ported with

WebAssembly WebAssembly (sometimes abbreviated Wasm) defines a portable binary-code format and a corresponding text format for executable programs as well as software interfaces for facilitating interactions between such programs and their host environment ...

Free raster to vector conversion software Free software programmed in C

Properties

Examples

See also

References

Further reading

External links