Potrace Explained

Potrace
Logo Size:	200px
Developer:	Peter Selinger
Released:	2001
Latest Release Version:	1.16^[1]
Programming Language:	C
Genre:	Raster-to-vector conversion
Platform:	Cross-platform
License:	Potrace: GPL-2.0-or-later, Potrace Professional: proprietary
Website:	http://potrace.sourceforge.net

Potrace ^[2] is cross-platform, open-source software which converts bitmapped images into vector graphics. It is written and maintained by Peter Selinger.

Properties

Various graphical frontends are available for the command-line application Potrace. Notably, it has been integrated with Inkscape, giving Inkscape its Trace Bitmap action.^[3] FontForge can use Potrace to import a bitmap image into a font. Potrace is also used by the music engraving program LilyPond. An open-source progressive web app that uses Potrace is SVGcode.

Potrace's input and output is black and white (colored images are greyscaled before processing). However, Inkscape is capable of producing color images by decomposing each channel into several black and white images and tracing them separately with Potrace. The commercial Total Vectorize program also uses Potrace as its core.

Potrace is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later. A non-GPL version of Potrace called "Potrace Professional" is available under license from Selinger's company, Icosasoft Software, Inc.^[4]

See also

• Comparison of raster-to-vector conversion software

Further reading

• Peter Selinger, Potrace: a polygon-based tracing algorithm, Sep 2003
• Elisa de Castro Guerra, Inkscape: Apprenez, pratiquez, créez, Pearson Education France, 2007,, pp. 108–111
• Yannis Haralambous, Fonts & encodings, O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2007,, pp. 500–501
• Karel Píška, Creating Type 1 Fonts from METAFONT Sources: Comparison of Tools, Techniques and Results in TeX, XML, and digital typography: International Conference on TeX, XML, and Digital Typography, held jointly with the 25th Annual Meeting of the TeX Users Group, TUG 2004, Xanthi, Greece, August 30 - September 3, 2004 ; proceedings, LNCS Volume 3130, Editor Apostolos Syropoulos, Springer, 2004,, pp. 240–256, preprint

External links

• on SourceForge
• Vince Vatter, How to make slides from handwritten notes using potrace
• Online version of Potrace ported with WebAssembly

Notes and References

1. Web site: ChangeLog . SourceForge project potrace . Peter Selinger . 2019-09-17 . 2019-10-25.
2. Web site: Selinger . Peter . Potrace Frequently Asked Questions . 2024-02-28 . potrace.sourceforge.net.
3. Web site: Inkscape tutorial: Tracing. Inkscape. 2019-02-06.
4. http://potrace.sourceforge.net/#dual Dual licensing program for Potrace