VectorMagic Brings the Abra Kadabra to your Photos

Recently as I was just browsing the web, I stumbled on this website through a set of forums. Apparently this site allows you to change your bitmap images to nice scalable vector images! What’s the difference between a bitmap and a vector image though? As you might already know, a bitmap image uses pixels to render the photograph, whereas a vector image would use geometrical shapes such as lines and circles to make it much more scalable. Try enlarging one of your images – then you’ll see what I mean!

VectorMagic is a project of Stanford University’s, and is a website that allows you to upload a bitmap file and convert it into a vector file. Due to traffic constraints, VectorMagic limits the picture to one megapixel after converting, but it’s a pretty simple matter to just scale it back afterwards. You will be able to download the files as either a .EPS file which can be edited in Photoshop, or a .SVG file (which I have no information about). From my experience though, Photoshop transforms the .EPS image into a bitmap image again for editing. I’d recommend getting Corel Paintshop Pro, the Vector equivalent of Photoshop, to properly edit your vector images.

VectorMagic is a very promising tool – and is great for transforming logos and such. However, those bitmap images lose a bit of detail through the process, making the resulting image a bit cartoon-ish, I daresay. This can be slightly remedied by using the “high” detail selection.

An example of a bitmap image transformed to a vector image.

As for any recommendations I could suggest – why not use something like Flash or Silverlight to render VectorMagic? As the golden age of the internet dawns, why not use something that will be a little more future-proof? Although I am satisfied that this program gets the job done, I still think it can go a bit further in the aesthetics department. Also, as it is funded by an educational institution, I realize that it’s difficult to support heavy loads of traffic – so please, branch out to other servers so the one-megapixel limit can be lifted! PLEASE!

Overall, my verdict is VectorMagic still has a nice sparkle to it, and it’s certainly a keeper. But, unless it becomes more aesthetically-pleasing, I’m afraid the Web 2.0 will take off and leave it behind, which would be a shame!

Link here: http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/