VectorMagic Review
I’ve recently received quite a few emails about VectorMagic, a new online bitmap vectorizing service from a couple generous and ingenious minds at Stanford University. If you read the about page, VectorMagic seems to be the brain-child of two individuals, James Diebel and Jacob Norda. [Thanks Guys!]
My initial reaction. . . . WOW. If this is truly the work of 2 individuals, I couldn’t be any more impressed. Not only is VectorMagic (in my opinion) up-to-par/comparable to “Live Trace” in Illustrator and “Trace Bitmap” in Inkscape, but it’s 100% free, online, and to tell you the truth, seems to be as fast, if not faster than our desktop counterparts. Impressive.
There are (obviously) some major differences when you compare Vector Magic to Adobe or Inkscape (which is open source and collaborated on by hundreds, if not thousands of individuals). Vector Magic has very few settings and/or options. However, this makes sense given the fact that there are only a couple of individuals working on the project. Vector Magic is infantile yet seems to be extremely advanced. If you ask me, it has the best start out of all comparable services. I don’t really like Illustrator’s Live Trace because I can never get the results I want. Inkscape’s Trace Bitmap is better (in my opinion), but harder to Even with Vector Magic’s very few options, I was able to get very good results, over the web, very quickly. I’m very, very, impressed. (Pssst! Adobe, you might want give these two a shout, and offer them an interview.)
Below are 3 images I vectorized using VectorMagic. Have a look for yourself. (all 3 images below were photographed by me, so no need to worry about copyright. Use the Vectors like all of my other freebies.) Note: I haven’t tested this on logos.
Original Image
Vectorized:
Includes: - EPS (1)
Original Image
Vectorized:
Includes: - EPS (1)
Original Image
Vectorized:
Includes: - EPS (1)
Related Posts:
- Vector Magic Leaves Stanford: No Longer Free - Desktop Coming Soon
- Inkscape 0.45.1 Released
- How to Make Vector Grunge
- onOne Sofware Releases “Liquid Resize” Demo
- VectorVault.com Product Review, Interview with Adam Jarvis, and the Future of Free Vectors Online
- Free Stuff: 2 Free 3D Wall Flash Components from Flashloaded
Freak’in amazing……..Its not as good as the old trusty trace it your self method but it sure does require a whole lot less time and its a great start to go back in and clean up.Thanks……..
very impressive. I just tested a couple of more logo/icon based images and they also seem to come out quite nicely. Of course, as DBdesignCo mentioned, he trace it yourself method is still the best… but also the most time-consuming…
I have been using vector magic for a few weeks with logos and it works GREAT. I was surprised the photos turned out so well!
WOW! I can’t wait to use this on some client submitted logos! ;)
Wow, 2 people? This is inspirational stuff. Great find!
I’m still waiting to see online vector collaboration tools so that me and my overseas buddy can collaborate on our ongoing projects without sending files back and forth.
Thanks for the find,
Jason
The RSS feed for this post appears to contain a bunch of spam links… at least I’m going by what I’m seeing in Google Reader.
I’d give you an example, but then this post might get filtered as spam:) They all have to do with debt consolidation, mortgages, etc.
Very cool, thanks! I have the same issue as Dan with the spam links in the feed through google reader.
@Dan
Same for me. A lot of spam! Screen.
Same deal with the spam in your feed. Hope you get that sorted!
Your blog appears to have been hacked - I read something about a recent wordpress vulnerability that hadn’t been patched yet. View the source code of your posts and you’ll see the spam — it shows up in feed readers, but is hidden on your blog using css.
damn, there are shitloads of spam on this page as mentioned above.
great post though. i don’t follow digg these days, so i’m out of the loop and it’s great to read bout these new services on my favourite box.
Holy Crap!
Anyone know how to get rid of that?
How is that possible?
~Bitt
maybe something like http://feedrinse.com/
I can’t believe this is free, it is seriously a tool I would be happy to pay for. Thanks for sharing this!
I saw this site last week, and I’m so impressed with it!
It saves me AGES when I have to trace images - even using Live Trace you need to clean it up a lot.
Can I just say, what is with all the spam attacking blogs lately? It’s so frustrating!
They’re getting mine by sending me spam trackbacks. I can’t figure out how to fix it either. I wouldn’t mind it so much except for the fact that one post that gets targeted a lot is a post about one of my friends who recently committed suicide. It’s distressing to say the least.
I just can say:::::::: AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks man
Good job I will buy the software if it was on sale since I am worried it would be taken down or not go into completion.
terrific !!! thanx for the link to VectorMagic and good luck to their authors.
I bet Adobe would propose them work.
WHAT AN AMAZING TOOL! WOW!
AWSOME
Their site smacks of “GOOG®, buy us!” and confirms my longstanding suspicion of Stanford - the ultimate tech darling billionaire incubating drop out school.
Aside from that, it rawks!
OMG AWESOME!!
2 guys did all that!? THIS IS BRILLIANT!
they need some interface design help.
But other than that, great find and awesome tool!
This will really make life easier in the office! Only one of our artists has CS2, and we are constantly bugging him to live trace all the tiny jpg logos our client sends us, which we then have to go in and try to figure out what font they used and replace it.
This program worked BETTER then live trace at getting logos accurate!
[...] molto funzionale, facile da usare e assai efficace. Non ci credete? Date un’occhiata alla recensione di BittBox e rimarrete a bocca aperta. Nico, 13 Novembre 2007 (Letto 1 volte) (0 voti) [...]
[...] Well pretty exact if you try Vector Magic - an online tool. [...]
Ah, I just found VectorMagic the other day. I used it to transform a black/white logo that I had drawn & scanned in to Photoshop (a program I’m pretty familiar with). Since I’m just learning Illustrator I thought that this would be a good way to get started. The only caveat I have coming from a newbie is that they don’t offer a black and transparency option - just black/white or black/white/grayscale. Turns out that they make the bottom layer into a complete black shape, not an outlined shape. So if I tried to change the fill of the upper layers from white to transparent I see the black from the bottom layer. I can’t seem to figure out a good way to change this other than to start from scratch and trace it myself. But I did try it with the logo colored in and it looks great!
Ah, and your site looks like it has amazing tips/tutorials. I’m definitely bookmarking this and coming back for more lessons. Good luck with the move!
perfect
Thanks i like it.
isn’t free stuff just the best…
Keep up the good work Bitt.
Nice post Bitt. Here’s a funny coincidence. Looks like this one which has Magic in the title too is <a href=”http://www.silverspider.com/2006/magictracer-upgrade/made by 2 guys as well. It looks more like it’s geared towards engineers and CAD rather than designers though.
Nice post Bitt, please ignore the first post. I forgot to close the hyperlink. :( Here’s a funny coincidence. Looks like this one which has Magic in the title too is made by 2 guys as well. It looks more like it’s geared towards engineers and CAD rather than designers though.
[...] découvert via un billet sur le site BittBox, une application en ligne nommée VectorMagic permettant de vectoriser une [...]
really awesome,thanks for that
I’ve been using VectorMagic for a while now and have been more than pleased with the very excellent results. However, I just discovered today that they’ve gone commercial and I am very unhappy about their method. Their token thing is far too expensive and I can only imagine what obscene price they’re dreaming of for the desktop version given that the first $50 spent on tokens can be applied to it if/when it ever becomes available. Look, VectorMagic is great, but it’s a single function application - I’d pay $50 maximum for that, but asking for more is insane. And I’m currently using Windoze XP, but Vista is a permanent nonstarter so I’m going Linux - what’s with the intention to only support Windoze and Macs? Come on, Vector Magic! First, keep the online service a free one. Then go ahead and make a desktop version for the professionals who need more throughput, quality, etc. and sell it for $100. Taking away the free service and charging a lot for the software won’t get you anything but a tiny niche market whereas keeping the free online service will get you a lot of goodwill and market mindshare, both of which lead to increased purchases when happy private users go to work and sing your praises to their employers. Somebody hasn’t been paying attention to their business and marketing lessons :-(
Anyone else see Wired’s latest issue on the value of FREE? Give away the feature, charge for convenience. Theyre close in their methods, but the romance is gone.
How many people bought an iPod because of the accesories?
There are other options, the trick is making your goods the more swank.
What is the price of ads on Picassa? Oh well, back to Illustrator.
I’d pay $50 maximum for that, turk porno but asking for more is insane. And I’m currently using Windoze XP, but Vista is a permanent nonstarter so I’m going Linux - what’s with the intention to only support Windoze and Macs? Come on, Vector Magic! First, keep the online service a free one.
Ages ago I was using the free beta of vector magic, and I did think it was better than anything else on offer. But now having to pay for the service? No. The cost per conversion is just too high for me when I have to purchase tokens now for the rare instance I may need to do some samples for clients.
I would of been happier if they had added advertising into the website and process rather than charging for the online service, and for a desktop version, I would consider buying, but ONLY if it offered extra options, or gave a serious increase in processing speed of the conversion.
Personally I think I may be sticking with the two free conversions for each free sign up. Looks like I may be telling everyone to use free throw away email accounts to do their processing rather than spend money on the tokens. It is a time consuming way of getting it done, but for the amount of times I use the vector magic conversion, I find that the cheapest alternative.
http://www.vectormagic.ir
persian home page