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11.12 Vectorizing images
The process of turning images (JPG, PNG, photoshop files, etc) into vector art-
work is generally outside the scope of the AxiDraw software. That said, how to do
so is a frequently asked question so we are including some notes on the subject.
The process of converting a photograph into a piece of pen-ready vector line art
can most accurately be described by the word “sketching.” That is to say, it is not
so much a matter of file conversion as one of artistic interpretation. There are
genuinely a limitless number of ways to represent a photo with a set of strokes.
Artists that work with plotters often write their own programs to perform this
kind of conversion, and we will point out a few of these programs.
Inkscape includes a vectorizing tool, found in the menu at Path > Trace bitmap.
It works by tracing the outlines of darker regions. It does work, and is some-
times useful for very simple shapes, but it generally does not produce high quality
output that works well on plotters. You may end up with (for example) ghostly
eects, or tens of thousands of tiny little loops that represent stray pixels on the
input photo.
While this is nowhere near a comprehensive list, here are three examples of out-
put from dierent vector “sketching” programs. All three of these are free pro-
grams that are written and run in the Processing development environment.
This portrait was generated from an image with SquiggleDraw, available at:
https://github.com/gwygonik/SquiggleDraw
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