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Research: image → SVG (October 2026)

Survey done before any code was written, to decide what to build on. Versions and licenses below were checked against npm/crates/docs on 2026-10-16; items marked unverified could not be confirmed and should be re-checked before they become load-bearing.

The headline

Section titled “The headline”

No downloadable AI model beats a good classical tracer at image → SVG. In the OmniSVG paper’s own benchmark, VTracer matches or beats every learned model on icons (DINO 0.993) and clearly beats them on illustrations (0.994 vs 0.899 for OmniSVG, worse still for StarVector-8B). The learned models need a 16 GB+ GPU and take 10–80 s per image. Where AI genuinely helps is around the tracer: removing backgrounds, upscaling low-res JPEG logos, segmenting regions — and those models run in the browser.

So the plan is a classical tracer in the browser, AI preprocessing in the browser, and an optional paid “HD” mode behind a server function with a cap.

Classical tracers

Section titled “Classical tracers”
Engine License Browser Notes
VTracer (visioncortex) MIT OR Apache-2.0 Yes (WASM) Colour + B/W, stacked or cutout shapes, spline/polygon/pixel modes. 1.0.0-alpha.4 (2026-08-29) adds simplify, fixed palette (OKLab matching), maxColors, adaptive threshold, presets. Best base.
vtracer-wasm (jsscheller) MIT Yes, ESM 0.1.0, ~59 KB gzipped wasm, wraps the older 0.8.8 engine — classic settings only. Fastest way to start.
@visioncortex/vtracer MIT OR Apache-2.0 No, as published Official 1.0 package loads its wasm with fs.readFileSync (Node only). Rebuild the repo’s crate with wasm-pack --target web to get 1.0 features in the browser.
Potrace / esm-potrace-wasm GPL-2.0 Yes B/W only (colour via posterize + layering). Smooth curves. Bundling it into the client makes the shipped bundle GPL. Avoid unless the repo goes GPL, or run it server-side.
imagetracerjs Unlicense Yes Unmaintained since 2020; noisier, larger output than VTracer.
Open Vectorizer (vardirhq) MIT Yes (Rust/WASM, ~150 KB) New. Sub-pixel edges via anti-aliasing, recovers real <circle>/<rect>/<ellipse>. Logos only, no gradients, 2048 px cap. npm availability unverified. Worth a look as a second “geometric” engine.
AutoTrace GPL / LGPL No maintained WASM Has centerline tracing (useful for line art / plotters). Server-side only.
Inkscape CLI GPL — Trace doesn’t work headless. Not viable.

Supporting pieces: SVGO 4.1 (MIT, svgo/browser, ~195 KB gz — lazy-load), image-q (MIT, quantizers; probably redundant once on VTracer 1.0’s maxColors), OpenCV.js (Apache-2.0 but 3.8 MB gz — too heavy for what we need; canvas filters suffice).

AI models

Section titled “AI models”

Image → SVG code models (all need a CUDA GPU, none run in a browser):

  • StarVector 1B/8B — Apache-2.0 code and weights. Good on icons, its own README says it does not work on illustrations or photos. Hosted only on fal (fal-ai/star-vector, ~$0.10/MP).
  • OmniSVG 1.1 (4B/8B) — Apache-2.0 weights (training data is CC BY-NC-SA). ~16 GB VRAM, 18–83 s per image. HF Space demo only.
  • InternSVG-8B — Apache-2.0 code, weights license unclear.
  • VFig, VectorArk, LayerPeeler — papers without released weights yet.

Vision LLMs writing SVG (Claude, GPT, Gemini): semantically clean output — real shapes, text kept as <text>, small files — but geometry only approximates the source. Good for simple logos and diagrams, poor for detailed art. In SVGenius, Claude 3.7 Sonnet led the easy tier. Roughly $0.01–0.06 per image (estimate).

Optimization methods (DiffVG, LIVE, SuperSVG): high fidelity, research-grade. LIVE is hours per image; DiffVG minutes. Not product-viable.

Preprocessing that runs in the browser (transformers.js / ONNX Runtime Web, WebGPU in Chromium; partial elsewhere):

Model Job License
BiRefNet_lite (ONNX) Background removal MIT
SlimSAM-77 / SAM 2.1 tiny Click-to-select regions Apache-2.0 (SAM2 from memory)
Real-ESRGAN (x4 / general) Upscale + denoise low-res logos before tracing BSD-3 (from memory)

Avoid: RMBG-1.4 / 2.0 (Bria, non-commercial), @imgly/background-removal and @imgly/vectorizer (AGPL-3.0).

Hosted APIs (for an optional “HD” mode)

Section titled “Hosted APIs (for an optional “HD” mode)”
Service Price Notes
Recraft Vectorize $0.01/image Direct, or via fal / Picsart. 256–4096 px. No colour-count control. Inputs train their models by default (opt-out). Cheapest good option.
Vectorizer.ai $0.05–0.20/image Most controls (max_colors, palette, stacked/cutout, SVG/EPS/PDF/DXF). Free watermarked test mode for building the integration. Commercial terms unverified.
fal StarVector ~$0.10/MP Icons only.
Adobe Image Trace API Beta, enterprise-ish Not realistic for a hobby project.
Vector Magic No public API —

Platform constraints

Section titled “Platform constraints”
  • Vercel Functions: 4.5 MB request/response body on every plan (413 above it) — downscale in the browser before sending. Hobby: 300 s max, 2 GB. Hobby is non-commercial — fine for a portfolio piece; ads or paid features would need Pro.
  • Supabase Edge Functions: 2 s CPU per request, 256 MB. Fine as an API proxy, unusable for tracing itself. Not needed: a Vercel Function in this project covers the proxy case without a new Supabase project.

Where the gaps are

Section titled “Where the gaps are”

The good server tools (Vectorizer.ai, Vector Magic, vectorizer.io) charge for downloads; the free browser tools (SVGcode, VTracer’s demo) have thin controls and no palette editing. Nothing surveyed offered:

  1. Free + private with an editable palette and region recolour — images never leave the device.
  2. A real diff view — split slider or overlay with a per-pixel error heatmap.
  3. Live complexity budget — path, node and byte counts as you drag, with a target file size.
  4. Per-colour layer export — one group or file per colour, for screen printing and vinyl cutting.
  5. Purpose presets — logo, line art, pixel art, poster/photo; centerline for line art.
Section titled “Recommended architecture”
  1. Core, free, client-only. VTracer in a Web Worker (start on vtracer-wasm, move to a wasm-pack --target web build of 1.0 for simplify/palette/maxColors) → SVGO. Presets, diff view, palette editing, layer export.
  2. AI assist, still client-only. Lazy-loaded BiRefNet_lite background removal and Real-ESRGAN upscale, models cached in OPFS. Only MIT/BSD/Apache weights.
  3. Optional HD mode, server. A Vercel Function proxying Recraft ($0.01) with a per-IP daily cap and a global spend cap — or a vision-LLM “semantic SVG” mode for logos with text, scored against the input in the browser and falling back to VTracer when it loses.

Skip self-hosting StarVector/OmniSVG: GPU cost, 10–80 s latency, and no quality win over VTracer.

Sources

Section titled “Sources”