Digital Signage Graphics Easily Convert Bitmap Images To Clean Vector Art

Some digital signage software solutions prefer vectored rather than bitmapped images because they scale much better on larger screens. Some of the better Flash animations make wide use of vectored images to help create smooth animations. But what if the only image you have is a small bitmapped JPG image? One solution may be Vector Magic.

Vector Magic (http://www.vectormagic.com) is an easy online service that will convert your images to EPS, PDF, SVG and PNG with just a few clicks of a button. There is also a desktop application version.

When I tested the service, I uploaded a somewhat dirty image. I wanted to see how well the service was able to correct for bad color degradation and other issues. I was surprised at how well VectorMagic cleaned up the image. The service does its best to fix a wide range of image problems. If you don’t like some part of the image conversion, there is a very simple pixel-level editor that will let you clean up any last bits. If you are not confotable editing your image yourself, VectorMagic does provide a service to hand-outline and draw your image.

There are some limitations that should be pointed out. The online service cannot remove backgrounds from your uploaded image (for transparency), but they report the desktop version does have this feature. I limited my test to the online version, so I cannot speak to this reported functionality. Also, Vector Magic does not have the ability to convert gradients to gradient vector shapes, but may have this feature in the future.

Using Vector Magic was very easy, no signup was necessary, and it’s free to try it out.

Simply:

1.) Upload your image. Vector Magic automatically figures out what settings to use and traces the image right away.

2.) Download the result! You can review the result in detail online before downloading it, and there are several tweaking options for improving it as well.

There is a short tutorial from Vector Magic that you can view at http://vectormagic.com/support/tutorials/how_to_use_it

All in all, I was very happy with the service and believe many of us with limited graphic image editing skills will find the service useful.