Inkscape

Convertion from png

Asked by TOMCAT

How to convert an existing png to svg?

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Oleg Koptev
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Best Oleg Koptev (koptev-oleg) said : 		#1

hello there

First - you can not convert png to svg directly.

PNG is 'raster' format - i.e. data of image represented in binary form.
SVG is 'vector' format - data represented as XML (by other words in plain
text)

In other words it is completely different formats of data.

You could simply convert SVG to PNG (in another words - making snapshot or
'render' SVG), but for opposite transaction you must perform so called
'tracing'. Tracing could be performed by hand (imagine that you outline the
picture) and automatically.

I think you are mostly interesting in automatic tracing, so I advise you
take a look at Tavmjong Bah book, available online absolutely for free (by
the way when you choose Help - Inkscape Manual, you go directly to that
book). The link is http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Trace.html

Cheers, Oleg

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Oleg Koptev (koptev-oleg) said : 		#2

Oh. The last technical addition to my previous post.
You could 'embed' PNG in SVG, so it will looks like SVG, but in fact that
will remain PNG with all of that disadvantages - you won't resize it without
lack of details, edit it like vector image and so on.

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TOMCAT (tomcat100) said : 		#3

Thanks Oleg Koptev, that solved my question.