trace-to-svg

What This Skill Does

The trace-to-svg skill is a powerful image processing utility designed to convert bitmap formats (PNG, JPG, WebP) into scalable vector graphics (SVG). By leveraging the industry-standard potrace and mkbitmap tools, this skill transforms raster-based images into clean, geometric path data. This process effectively converts pixel-based silhouettes, logos, or line art into mathematical vector shapes. These SVG outputs are essential for workflows requiring precision, such as CAD design, laser cutting, CNC machining, or simply scaling imagery without resolution loss. When triggered, the skill processes the input image, optimizes the high-contrast threshold, and removes unwanted noise artifacts to generate a precise d attribute path that can be integrated into broader manufacturing pipelines like create-dxf.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your OpenClaw environment, execute the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/ajmwagar/trace-to-svg

Ensure that you have the underlying potrace and mkbitmap binary dependencies installed on your host system, as this skill acts as a high-level wrapper to orchestrate these utilities.

Use Cases

• Logo Vectorization: Transform low-resolution pixelated company logos into clean, high-fidelity SVGs suitable for print and large-scale signage.
• Manufacturing & CAD: Convert simple sketches or silhouettes into DXF-ready paths to etch or cut using automated CNC or laser engraving machinery.
• Graphic Restoration: Clean up scanned physical documents or hand-drawn sketches to create digital assets that can be easily edited in tools like Illustrator or Inkscape.
• Reference Tracing: Generate SVG outlines from complex imagery to use as blueprints for 3D modeling or additive manufacturing tasks.

Example Prompts

1. "Trace the logo found in company_logo.png and output the result to vector_logo.svg using default settings."
2. "I need to convert sketch.jpg to an SVG. Please apply a threshold of 0.7 to ensure all lines are picked up and set the turdsize to 25 to remove small dots."
3. "Take the silhouette image at path/to/icon.png and convert it to an SVG path so I can pass it to the create-dxf skill for my upcoming etching job."

Tips & Limitations

• Performance: This skill performs best with high-contrast, black-and-white, or grayscale source images. Color photos often require pre-processing (desaturation or thresholding) to achieve desirable results.
• Tuning: Use the --threshold flag to manage how the tool perceives 'light' versus 'dark' pixels. If your output is too grainy or has 'pepper' noise, increase the --turdsize parameter to ignore smaller isolated pixel clusters.
• Limitations: This is not an automated 'Image-to-Vector' magic wand for complex photography; complex gradients or photo-realistic textures will likely produce messy, unusable paths. Always check your output SVG nodes after conversion if using them for high-precision CNC work.