Creatiing SVG Files Without Illustrator

[SnowOwlMoon]

For those of you with an Adobe subscription, and do not have Adobe Illustrator, check to see if you have Adobe Express in your subscription.  I have always wanted to create SVG (vector) files, but didn't want to use Illustrator, as I didn't find it user friendly.  However, you can upload a PNG or JPG file to Express, then convert it to an SVG and redownload it.  This makes it very easy, when you have a small image that needs to be made larger for wallpaper or a shower curtain, etc.

[Cat]

You can do the same thing with photopea and it's completely free - no subscription required. Photopea | Online Photo Editor

Inkscape is also free but holy moly - you need several years to learn how to use it!

[SnowOwlMoon]

I may try Photopea . . . I just discovered that Express is downloading the files as an HTML (that may be a Windows problem), which means that it's essentially useless as a design image.  

[Cat]

I've only tried it with simple clipart sorts of images so I don't know how well it would work for something more complicated. But you just upload it then choose "vectorize bitmap" from the "image" menu.

It lets you choose how many colors to make it - I've found that if you want simple line art that you can change the color of in Zazzle's design tool, choosing 3 colors works well. Then you can save it as an svg. It's SUPER helpful for those of us who design in the raster world!

I'm sure Photopea can do a LOT more than that, but that's the only thing I've ever used it for. 

[SnowOwlMoon]

Yes, I gave it a try and it was very easy to use!  I'll bookmark the site.  Windows still wanted to download the SVG from Photopea as an HTML Edge image.  If/when that happens, you have to tell Windows what program to use to convert it.  Because I have a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, that's what I entered.  Voila--an SVG!

Photopea looks like a simplified Photoshop.  Nice app!

[Cat]

It's weird that it wants to download it as html. I just choose "export as" from the file menu, then choose svg - it asks for a few more settings, then it downloads it as an svg.