Tiếng Việt
Jun
Tracepen turns a raster image (PNG, JPG, WebP) into clean vectors in your browser – export SVG, PNG, PDF, or DXF (Lines, Hatch, Faces) for Figma, Cricut, Lightburn, CNC, AutoCAD, SketchUp, or Blender. A deterministic tracer (no AI). Free for 2-colour SVG / PNG; sign in with a 3dshouse account for every format at unlimited colours.
Video
Features
- Many export formats – SVG (Figma, Illustrator, Inkscape), PNG, PDF, DXF Lines (Cricut, Lightburn cut, CNC), DXF Hatch (Lightburn fill), DXF Faces (SketchUp, Blender, Rhino).
- Auto photo / graphic detection – suggests a colour count; slide from 2 (black & white) up to the maximum.
- Per-layer editing – toggle visibility, change a layer’s hex, adjust stroke / noise filter / minimum region size.
- Deterministic – ADU quantization → Mumford-Shah merge → contour trace → Potrace Bezier fit. Same image in, same SVG out.
- Private free tier – 2-colour traces run entirely in your browser, no sign-up.
Install
Nothing to install – it runs in any modern browser. Sign in with your 3dshouse account to unlock Tracepen Online Pro (all formats, unlimited colours).
Requirements
- Any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari).
Export formats — which to use
| Format | Best for |
|---|---|
| SVG | Figma, Illustrator, Canva, CorelDRAW, Inkscape, Affinity Designer, web |
| PNG | Any tool without SVG support (Photoshop, PowerPoint, Keynote, Word) |
| Print layout, vector in slide decks | |
| DXF Lines (closed LWPOLYLINE) | Cricut, Silhouette, Lightburn (Cut), AutoCAD, Fusion 360, LibreCAD, CNC, vinyl cutting |
| DXF Hatch (solid HATCH) | Lightburn (Fill / Scan engrave), AutoCAD visual import |
| DXF Faces (3DFACE triangulated) | SketchUp, Blender, 3ds Max, Rhino, Cinema 4D — enable Merge Coplanar Faces on import |
Each region exports as a closed LWPOLYLINE, not a stack of line segments — so Lightburn and CorelDRAW treat it as fillable immediately, with no Edit → Close Path step to repair open contours (the failure most hand-traced or text-derived DXFs hit before they can be filled or offset).
How Tracepen compares
| Tool | Type | Pricing | Runs where | DXF for CNC / laser |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tracepen | Deterministic trace | Free · one-time Pro | Browser + SketchUp plugin | ✔ Lines + Hatch + Faces |
| Illustrator Image Trace | Deterministic trace | Subscription | Desktop | via export |
| CorelDRAW PowerTRACE | Deterministic trace | One-time | Desktop | via export |
| Inkscape Trace Bitmap | Potrace | Free | Desktop | via extension |
| Vector Magic | Deterministic trace | Subscription | Desktop + web | ✘ |
| Vectorizer.AI | AI | Subscription | Web | ✘ |
Tracepen is the only free, browser-based, deterministic tracer that exports DXF Lines (for cutters) and DXF Faces (for 3D) out of the box — plus a native SketchUp plugin.
Import into your tool
- Figma / Illustrator / Canva / Inkscape / Affinity — drag-and-drop the SVG, or File → Open / Import. No conversion.
- Cricut Design Space / Silhouette Studio — upload the DXF Lines export; each colour becomes a separate cuttable layer. Use Lines, not Hatch — cutters follow outlines. Heads-up: Design Space accepts DXF only on desktop — the iOS and Android apps reject it, so upload from a computer (or fall back to SVG, which works everywhere).
- Lightburn — DXF Lines for cutting (outlines → Cut mode), DXF Hatch for engraving (filled regions → Fill / Scan).
- AutoCAD / Fusion 360 / LibreCAD — DXF Lines for outlines, DXF Hatch for filled regions; every colour becomes its own CAD layer.
- SketchUp / Blender / Rhino / 3ds Max — DXF Faces, then enable Merge Coplanar Faces on import. Without that option each colour region arrives as a raw triangle fan with every diagonal showing; the merge dissolves the shared edges back into one flat face per region — but only works because Tracepen keeps each region perfectly planar, so a single Push/Pull then extrudes the whole shape. Prefer native faces? Use the SketchUp plugin instead — no DXF round-trip.
FAQ
What does the free tier include?
2 colours (black & white), SVG and PNG export, unlimited traces, no sign-up – enough for most line-art, logo, silhouette, laser-cut, and Cricut work.
What does Pro unlock?
Unlimited colours and every format (SVG, PNG, PDF, DXF Lines / Hatch / Faces), plus the SketchUp plugin. One-time, via Tracepen Online Pro.
Does it use AI?
No – a deterministic tracer, reliable for production (laser cutting, CNC, print). Because the pipeline is fixed, re-tracing the same file after a tool update gives a byte-identical result — handy when a cut file has to match an earlier production run exactly.
Is my image uploaded?
Free 2-colour tracing runs entirely in your browser — nothing leaves your machine. Premium multi-colour traces are sent to an API endpoint, processed, and discarded after the response — never stored.
What image format should I upload?
PNG is best for flat artwork, logos, screenshots and icons. JPG works for photos — raise the Noise filter to 3–6 to clean JPEG artefacts before tracing. One thing JPG cannot carry is transparency: flatten or matte your subject onto a solid colour first, since a traced JPG always fills the whole frame whereas a PNG with an alpha channel keeps the background empty.
How does it compare to Vector Magic, Vectorizer.AI or Adobe Image Trace?
Tracepen is the only free, browser-based, deterministic tracer that exports DXF Lines and DXF Faces for CNC, laser and 3D out of the box — see the comparison table above.