What is Vector Magic?
 Vector Magic is the result of Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory research project by James Diebel and Jacob Norda. It is a valuable online tool for vectorizing images. Vector Magic’s flagship service is the online auto tracer. It converts bitmap (aka raster) images into vector images through an easy-to-use web interface – just upload your image and it will guide you through the process. 

 

Vector Magic is different from other auto-tracing tools in several ways:

• Better accuracy. If you compare results from other tools side-by-side with those from Vector Magic, you will notice that Vector Magic produces vectors that more closely resemble the input image. Finer details in the shapes are recovered, and the curves are more faithful to the bitmap original.
• Less cleanup required. Vector Magic’s results have less noise, while still extracting more detail from the bitmap original. Normally you’d have to spend half an hour or more cleaning up the output from an auto-tracer – with Vector Magic you can oftentimes use the result right away, and if it requires cleanup then it’s usually much less than what’s required for the results from the competing tools.
• Easier user interface with less trial-and-error. If you’ve used other tracing tools, you have probably noticed that they have tons of confusing options and settings, and require you to more or less randomly try different combinations of these in the frustrating search for a passable result.With Vector Magic on the other hand, all you need to do is answer a couple of simple questions and that’s it. In case you’re not satisfied with the result, there is even a troubleshooting guide to help you resolve the problem – again phrased as simple questions, not confusing options with unclear effects.