Tips & Tricks

Intaglio Vectorize™ converts bitmap images to vector graphics (i.e., converts photos to shapes) which can be exported as PDF or SVG image files, or directly to our vector graphics editing application, called Intaglio for editing. If you like this app and need to edit your vector graphics, please use the menu Help > Intaglio Web Site (or visit www.PurgatoryDesign.com/Intaglio) to check out Intaglio. You can download it from our website and try it as a demo for free.

To get started, open the bitmap image file you want to convert to vector graphics. The panel on the left side of the resulting window has four panes, Layers, Image, Mask and Vectors with controls to govern the conversion process. The use of these four panes is explained below.

You can create as many layers as you wish in the Layers pane. Each layer has its own bitmap adjustment and vector conversion settings (set in the Image and Vectors panes respectively), and its own mask. This means you can create separate layers and use a mask in each layer to divide portions of the image between layers. Then you can adjust the image portions separately, use the best vector conversion settings for each, and assign each layer a different color. Individual layers will be exported as a separate paths, each with its specified color. Layers can be deleted, disabled, renamed and rearranged within the list in the Layers pane.

The bitmap image is adjusted in the Image pane. For vector conversion, this application works strictly with black and white images, which is to say all non-white areas are considered part of the image. For best results, adjust the image prior to conversion so any part you don’t want to convert is white. The Image pane includes tools to help with this. You can adjust the image in color, but it will ultimately be converted to black and white for conversion. The color adjustments simply change which bitmap pixels will be considered part of the vector image. To preview the image in black and white as it will be converted, check the Show Threshold box in the Image pane.

The Mask pane allows parts of the image to excluded from vector conversion. Only the parts of the image within the masked area will be converted. Initially the image in the pane appears unchanged because the entire image is masked, but you can use the Rectangle, Polygon, Lasso and Eyedropper to add or remove areas from the mask. While using these tools, hold down the shift key on the keyboard to add to the mask, or the option (or alt) key to remove from it. The parts of the image outside the mask (which won’t be converted) are drawn with the color specified (a transparent red by default). When using the Eyedropper, the Fuzziness slider controls how many similar colors are selected. It can be helpful to drag the cursor around in the colored area to pick up all the similar colors.

The Vectors pane controls the vector conversion settings. The controls at the top of the pane govern how the vectors are formed, while the controls below determine how they are drawn. The anchor points for the vector lines and curves are shown as small squares (in transparent blue by default) to give you an idea of the complexity of the vector image. Adjust the Smooth and Simplify sliders until the vector complexity is acceptable. For a clearer view of the converted vectors, you can hide the image and/or anchor points with the (Hide) Image and (Hide) Anchor Points boxes.

Apart from when using a mask tool, clicking in the image zooms about that point. If the option (or alt) key on the keyboard is held down during the click, you will zoom out, otherwise you zoom in. When the option key is held down, scrolling with the mouse will zoom the image in and out.

Clicking and dragging in the image with the space bar on the keyboard held down scrolls the image.