Vector files for sign making
Sign work needs the same mark twice: as cut paths for the plotter and as print artwork for the RIP. Trace once, export both.
- Preset
- Vinyl
- Palette
- 4 colours
- Output
- EPS [soon]
- Price
- Free preview
Drop an image here, or paste
Your image is never uploaded. It is traced in this tab.Open the full converter
Preset
- 01Logo16 colours
- 02Line artBlack & white
- 03Photo64 colours
- 04Embroidery8 colours · Cutout
- 05Vinyl — set for this page4 colours · Cutout
- 06LaserBlack & white · Polygon
- Output · SVG · PDF · EPS [soon] · DXF [soon]
- Preview free · download with Pro €9.00 / month
- Your file stays in this tab
The EPS exporter lands in week 4. Tracing and preview work today; export is disabled until then.
What the software needs
- EPS for the RIP
- Large-format RIPs were built around PostScript and most shops still ask for EPS. The traced paths export as Encapsulated PostScript, not as a bitmap in a wrapper.
- DXF or SVG for the plotter
- Cut paths go to the plotter separately from the print file. DXF carries units; SVG is what the newer cutting software prefers.
- Legible at viewing distance
- A detail that disappears at ten metres is weight the file does not need. Simplify to what will actually be read from where people stand.
- Colours the shop can match
- Trace to flat fills, then assign spot or vinyl colours in your editor against the shop swatch book. The tracer produces process colours; matching is a shop decision.
- Weeding checked at real size
- Check the thinnest stroke at the finished size, not on screen. A serif that survives at 200 mm tears at 60 mm.
Preset
The vinyl preset is the safe default for sign work because cut paths are the stricter of the two outputs. Anything that cuts cleanly also prints cleanly; the reverse is not true, and finding out at the plotter is expensive.
Why vectortrace
- Ticket 1 / 3
In-browser and private
The engine is WebAssembly running in a worker on your own machine. Your image is never uploaded — so there is nothing to leak, nothing to delete, and nothing to take on trust.
- Ticket 2 / 3
Editable paths, not a wrapper
The engine groups the image into colour regions, takes the boundary between them and fits curves to it. What comes out is real geometry — one fill per region, every node yours to move — produced in the tab and never on a server.
- Ticket 3 / 3
Formats print and production use
SVG and PDF today; EPS and DXF for cutters, engravers and embroidery software as the exporters land. Real files, opened in Illustrator, Inkscape and LibreCAD — not an SVG with a JPEG inside it.
Benchmark
Measured, not marketed. The corpus, the method and every figure the run produced are published in full.
Methodology → /benchmarks- boundary error, p95
- 0.39 px
- region-count error
- 0.113
- node-count ratio
- 6.35×
Questions
- 01The customer only has a JPG of their logo. Is that enough?
- Usually yes for signage, with a caveat. JPEG ringing along the edges traces as a rippling contour, so filter it first and check the result at the finished size. If a print-quality original exists anywhere, it is worth one more email.
- 02Why do sign shops still ask for EPS?
- Because the RIP takes it and always has. It is a workflow that works, not a quality difference — the same outlines are in the SVG.
- 03Can I get both a cut file and a print file from one trace?
- Yes. The traced document is exported by several writers, so DXF for the plotter and EPS or PDF for the RIP come from the same geometry rather than from two separate traces that drift apart.