Artsy pixel image to vector graphics converter

inkdrop

inkdrop is an artsy bitmap to vector converter.

Command line interface

The CLI binary is called inkdrop-cli and reads almost any image bitmap format via the --input parameter and outputs an SVG document given by the --output parameter. Let's take this image of the Nefertiti bust, cropped and the background turned to pure white:

Using the --draw-points parameter we can output all sampled points. The number of sampled points can be controlled with the --num-points parameter. Calling

$ inkdrop-cli --input nofretete.png \
              --output output.svg \
              --draw-points \
              --num-points 20000

gives us

It resembles the input image but due to the stochastic nature, it is a bit noisy. We can move these initial points using the Weighted Voronoi method. Using

$ inkdrop --input nofretete.png \
              --output output.svg \
              --draw-points \
              --num-points 20000 \
              --voronoi-iterations 100

we get points that much better reflect the structure of the original image:

By leaving out the --draw-points parameter, all points will be connected. Without further adjustments the nearest neighbor tour is chosen which will be ugly most of the time because the path crosses itself. To fix that use the --tsp-improvement parameter which optimizes the tour using the 2-opt algorithm until the improvement is not better than the parameter given. So our final command line

$ inkdrop-cli --input nofretete.png \
              --output output.svg \
              --num-points 20000 \
              --voronoi-iterations 100
              --tsp-improvement 0.001

gives us the following output:

GTK4 user interface

Call inkdrop-ui and play around with the same parameters as above.