Converting a PNG to SVG: what actually happens

A PNG is a grid of coloured pixels. An SVG is a set of instructions: draw this curve, fill it this colour. Converting one to the other means guessing the instructions from the pixels.

Raster versus vector

Scale a PNG up and the pixels get bigger and blurrier. Scale an SVG and the shapes are redrawn at the new size, so edges stay sharp at any size. That is why logos and icons belong in SVG.

Tracing

Real conversion is called tracing. Software finds the edges between areas of colour and fits curves to them. Potrace, written by Peter Selinger, is the best-known algorithm and sits inside Inkscape's Trace Bitmap tool.

Watch for fake converters. Some tools wrap the original PNG inside an SVG file and call it done. The file ends in .svg but it is still pixels, and it will blur exactly like the PNG.

What converts well

• Converts well: logos, icons, line art, text, anything with flat colour and clear edges.
• Converts badly: photographs, gradients, soft shadows, anything with texture. The result is either huge or looks like a poster.
• Tip: start from the largest, cleanest PNG you have. Tracing a small JPEG produces the JPEG's artefacts as shapes.

What you could build here

Three directions that would work on this name. None of them is the only answer — it is your name once it is yours.

1. A free converter. Upload a PNG, get a clean SVG. Run the tracing in the browser and nothing leaves the user's machine.
2. A paid tracing service. Automatic tracing handles simple logos; people with messy files pay a human to redraw them.
3. A design tools site. Converters, optimisers and format guides, all under one exact-match name.

Tools that do it properly

• InkscapeFree vector editor with Trace Bitmap built in
• Text Diff OnlineFree side-by-side text comparison

What it could look like

A sample concept, built to show the name in use. It is a starting point, not a business that exists.