Guides

Guides to SVG, on real files.

Answers to the questions people ask about SVG files and logos, each one shown on a real conversion: the files, their sizes and their anchor points, measured.

VecSnap's guides answer what people ask about SVG files and logos: what an SVG or a vector file is, SVG or PNG, sizing and recoloring an SVG and making a favicon; fixing a pixelated logo or changing its colors; tracing a picture in Illustrator, Inkscape, Photoshop, Canva, Affinity or Figma; and making an SVG from a Procreate drawing or for a Cricut, and a sticker's border. Each answer comes first and is then shown on a real file, converted by VecSnap and measured, with its sources.

SVG and vector files

What the files are, and how they behave

Favicon size and format

Sizes, formats and the HTML, shown on one icon in a tab, a search result and a home screen.

Guide · 5 min read

What is an SVG file?

What the format is, and how to open, make and edit one, on a real file read line by line.

Guide · 4 min read

What is a vector file?

What one is, its formats, and how to tell a real one from pixels.

Guide · 3 min read

SVG viewBox, width and height

The viewBox, width and height, a responsive SVG, and why yours will not scale, shown on one file.

Guide · 4 min read

SVG vs PNG

Which format each job needs, shown on one drawing saved both ways.

Guide · 3 min read

How to change an SVG's color

Recolor an SVG in its text, with CSS or currentColor, and why one in an img tag will not change.

Guide · 4 min read

SVG vs EPS

What differs, which to send a printer, and one logo opened both ways.

Guide · 3 min read

Fixing a logo

How to change a logo's color

Change a logo's colors, make a white or a black version, and why a recolored PNG grows a halo.

Guide · 4 min read

How to fix a pixelated logo

Why a logo pixelates, the pixels each place asks for, and the fixes, shown on one small JPEG.

Guide · 5 min read

How to reduce anchor points

Why a traced SVG has thousands, what they cost, and how to keep only the few a shape needs.

Guide · 2 min read

Tracing tools

Illustrator, Inkscape, Photoshop, Canva, Affinity and Figma, step by step

Image Trace in Illustrator, step by step

The steps, the settings and Expand, and what to do when Image Trace is grayed out.

Guide · 3 min read

Inkscape Trace Bitmap, step by step

The steps, the modes and the settings, and what Trace Bitmap leaves on a real PNG.

Guide · 4 min read

How to vectorize an image in Photoshop

Make Work Path, color by color, and where it stops: what Photoshop can vectorize.

Guide · 4 min read

How to vectorize an image in Canva

Canva's own apps, why a PNG saved as an SVG stays pixels, and an SVG you can recolor in Canva.

Guide · 4 min read

Image Trace in Affinity, step by step

The steps, the two settings, where it is, and why traced corners come out round.

Guide · 4 min read

How to vectorize an image in Figma

Figma's own Vectorize, how to import or paste an SVG, and what makes a file easy to edit there.

Guide · 3 min read

Files for a machine

From a drawing app to a cutting machine or a laser

How to add a sticker border

A white edge and a smooth cut line, in Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape or one step.

Guide · 5 min read

How to turn a Procreate drawing into a vector

Procreate shares no vector file: export the PNG that converts best, and draw for it.

Guide · 2 min read

How to make an SVG for Cricut

Why Design Space wants an SVG, and how to make one with a layer for each color.

Guide · 4 min read

How to make an SVG for laser cutting

Why a traced SVG engraves some areas twice, and the file each laser app wants.

Guide · 5 min read

Drop an image. Check the file.

Converting is free. You see the whole result before you spend anything.