Expensive software like Illustrator appears to make editing vectors simply unaffordable. Fortunately, this is untrue! Inkscape is a free, open-source and cross-platform vector editor. Whilst it will no doubt lack behind Illustrator in certain aspects, in my opinion it suffices the requirements of any non-professional graphic designer. Inkscape, for example, cannot utilise gradient meshes or have multiple strokes, or fills, for one object. Yet, it has much better support for the SVG format (utilised by Wikipedia) and beats Illustrator on several minor usability issues (Inkscape, for example, allows anchor points to be edited with a keyboard). Key features, such as the ability to trace bitmaps, are also included.

Inkscape’s interface, like that of most graphics programs, is quite complex but I find myself being able to adopt to its much quicker than I adapted from PSP to Photoshop.

There are a few issues with Inkscape. The version for OS X requires X11 to be upgraded and several work-arounds to be implemented prior to it functioning and the upgrade to OS X 10.5.2 prevented Inkscape from working without further updates to X11. It appears to function much better under Linux and Windows.

Inkscape serves the needs of any home user and is such a substantial saving, of both disk space (being about 100MB big) and money, it can make Illustrator nearly useless for such customers. Its support for SVGs is also useful, as Firefox can open some SVGs meaning the recipient of a file Inkscape produces often does not need Inkscape to view the file as a vector.

Vectormagic is a free online script provided by the University of Stanford which is capable of converting raster images to vector images. The interface was designed with usability and ease of use in mind. The user is guided thoroughly through the process, explanations help him understand each step in the process.

The conversion begins by uploading a raster image to the website. If the image is to large it will be automatically reduced to one Megapixel. A first analysis is suggesting an image classification automatically which is spot on most of the times. The user has to select a quality level of the image which is done by comparing the three settings he can choose from with a zoomed in part of the image he uploaded.

After that the amount of colors have to be selected. The choice is either 12 or less colors or more than 12 colors. Once that is done the image will be automatically vectorized and the result will be displayed in a frame next to the original image.

It is possible to adjust all the settings and render the image again if the output is not looking well. Results can also be edited manually to correct segmentation mistakes.