# About pic2svg

Last reviewed 2026-10-22

pic2svg traces raster images into editable vector paths and exports the same trace to SVG, PDF, EPS, AI and DXF. This page states who runs it, what it is built on and how your images are handled. Every fact on it is taken from the code that runs the service or from the policies that govern it.

Text of <https://pic2svg.com/about/>.

## What pic2svg does

pic2svg converts JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, BMP and GIF images into SVG files made of filled vector paths, with no embedded bitmap. The tracing is deterministic: it is a fixed algorithm, not a generative AI model, so the same input with the same settings always gives the same paths. In the web app your browser first re-encodes the image, flat artwork as a lossless PNG and photos as a JPEG, and browsers' encoders differ slightly, so the same file can trace a little differently in two browsers.

Before tracing, the engine decides how to trace by counting distinct quantised colours (4 bits per channel) on a 256 px thumbnail of your image. Flat artwork with 48 or fewer, such as a clean logo, is traced as polygons; more is traced as curves, and anti-aliased edges add colours, so a simple logo can land in curve mode. A photo, where a few colours do not dominate a small sample, is first lightly smoothed and reduced to 32 flat colours, then traced as polygons, so it comes back as a poster. You pick one of two presets: Balanced (the default) or Compact, which merges near-identical colours.

One trace can be exported to PDF, EPS, AI and DXF. The AI file is EPS-compatible PostScript, not a native Illustrator document, and the DXF stores the trace as AutoCAD R2010 closed polylines in millimetres, with curves flattened into short straight segments.

You can trace one image at a time without an account, and up to 12 images in one batch after a free sign-in.

Tracing, previewing and SVG download are free. The paid plans are Starter, Pro and Advanced, billed monthly or yearly, and every new account starts with 7 days of Pro at no cost. What each plan includes, and its current price, is on the [pricing page](https://pic2svg.com/pricing/).

## Who runs it

pic2svg is operated by Song Zhi Jun, an individual trading as a sole trader. Its Terms of Service are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China.

Subscriptions are sold by Waffo Pancake, which acts as merchant of record: it processes the payment, collects tax, issues invoices and receipts, and handles refunds. See the [Terms of Service](https://pic2svg.com/terms/) and the [Refund & Cancellation Policy](https://pic2svg.com/refund/) for the details.

Questions about the product, your account, billing or your data go to one address:

<mailto:support@pic2svg.com>

## What it is built on

The tracing engine is a single Python program that the server runs for each trace and each export. It depends on four libraries, and on no Inkscape, Cairo or Ghostscript:

- vtracer, the Python package pinned to version 0.6.15 (the SVG header it writes names the bundled VTracer 0.6.12) — the open-source raster-to-vector tracer that turns the image into stacked colour layers of filled paths. Its source is public at [github.com/visioncortex/vtracer](https://github.com/visioncortex/vtracer).
- Pillow, version 10.0.0 or later — opens the image, converts it to RGB and scales it down when it is larger than the server's tracing limit. Smaller images are never scaled up.
- reportlab, version 4.0.0 or later — writes the PDF export.
- ezdxf, version 1.2.0 or later — writes the DXF export.
- The EPS and AI exports are written by the engine itself, as plain PostScript.

## Where your image is processed

pic2svg is a hosted web application. When you trace on pic2svg.com, your browser sends the image to api.pic2svg.com and the engine traces it there, so your image does leave your device. It is not sent to any third-party AI service or cloud vectorizer. Uploads are limited to roughly 45 MB.

Transparency is not kept. Before tracing, transparent areas are composited onto a white background, and that white is traced as part of the image. There is no background-removal step.

## How your data is handled

These points restate the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service; if they ever differ, those documents govern.

- To trace an image, the server writes it to a temporary file, runs the engine on it and deletes the file when the trace finishes. If a trace fails partway, the file can remain in the server's temporary directory until that directory is cleared; it is not copied anywhere else and is not backed up.
- Traced images are not stored in the application database, with one exception: if you create a share link, the traced vector and a small JPEG preview of your source image are stored there until the link is removed. Removing a share link, or deleting your account, is done by our team on request to the support address. Traced images are not used to train machine-learning models.
- A copy of the images you add, and of their traced output, is kept in your own browser so that a reload does not lose your work. You can remove it at any time by clearing site data for this domain.
- There are no advertising or analytics cookies, and personal information is not sold. The browser storage the service needs to work is a sign-in token, a note of the page to return you to, a short-lived note of the step you were taking when asked to sign in, your in-progress work and — only if you pick a language with the language switcher — a preferred_locale cookie, with a copy in local storage, kept for up to one year.
- A few more items are not needed to trace or download: a note of a share link you opened (kept for at most 7 days, so the person who shared it can be credited), the times an upgrade offer was last shown, and a session flag that stops the before-and-after demonstration replaying. Privacy Policy §8 lists every item and how long it is kept.

## How claims on this site are made

Product pages describe what the engine's source code does. Where they give a number, such as the 12-image batch or the 48-colour threshold above, it is a constant in that code rather than an estimate; the roughly 45 MB upload limit is derived from one (a cap of 60,000,000 base64 characters).

The two research articles go further. The [offline image-to-vector converter benchmark](https://pic2svg.com/offline-vector-converter-benchmark/) (measured 2026-09-28) and [how to check whether an SVG is a real vector](https://pic2svg.com/how-to-check-if-svg-is-a-real-vector/) (measured 2026-09-29) print every number next to the command that produced it, publish the raw measurement files, and end with a claim ledger: each metric, quote, price and feature claim on the page, with the source it came from and the exact passage that backs it.

What has changed on the site, and when, is listed in the [changelog](https://pic2svg.com/changelog/). The full [Privacy Policy](https://pic2svg.com/privacy/) covers everything we hold about you and your rights.