Keeping gradients in an Image trace in Vectornation by Zaweba
Why Image trace in Vectornation by Zaweba can keep smooth areas as linear or arched gradients with up to 8 stops, and how fit tolerance and softness shape them.
Most image tracing turns smooth shading into bands. A sky that fades from blue to white becomes a staircase of flat colour, and a shaded ball becomes a set of rings. The more bands you allow, the smoother it looks and the heavier the file becomes. Vectornation by Zaweba takes another route: smooth areas in a picture can stay as gradients in the trace.
What the trace can produce
Instead of breaking a smooth area into many flat shapes, the trace can fit a gradient to it. Gradients can be linear, running in a straight line, or arched, following a curve. Each gradient can have up to 8 stops, which is enough to follow most smooth transitions in real pictures, such as a sunset, a curved product surface or a soft background.
The result is a trace with far fewer shapes in smooth areas, because one shape with a gradient replaces many bands.
Fit tolerance
Fit tolerance decides how closely a gradient has to match the original before the trace accepts it. A tight tolerance means only areas that are genuinely smooth become gradients, and anything uneven stays as flat shapes. A looser tolerance lets more areas become gradients, at the cost of following the original less exactly.
Start with the default behaviour and change the tolerance if you see banding where you expected a gradient, or gradients where the picture really had detail.
Edge softness
Edge softness controls how gradient areas meet their neighbours. A softer edge helps the gradient blend into the surrounding shapes, so you do not see a hard line where one area ends. A harder edge keeps the boundaries crisp, which suits graphic artwork with clear divisions.
Why this approach helps
Fewer shapes mean a lighter file that is faster to open, draw and export. They also mean a trace that is easier to edit. Changing the colour of a sky made from forty bands means selecting forty shapes; changing one gradient means adjusting a few stops.
Gradients also scale better. Banding that looks acceptable at one size can become obvious when the artwork is enlarged for a poster, while a gradient stays smooth at any size.
When flat colour still wins
Not every picture should be traced with gradients. Logos and flat illustrations are meant to be solid colours, and gradients there would only add complexity. For those, use the trace palette to limit colours and leave gradients aside.
Gradients suit photographs, painted artwork and anything with soft lighting, where flat bands would look crude.
Gradients work alongside the trace palette and levels in Vectornation. Prepare the picture first: adjust levels, reduce noise and choose a palette. Then allow gradients for the smooth areas. Noise reduction is especially important here, because grain in a smooth area can stop the trace recognising it as a gradient.
After tracing, check the gradients at the size the artwork will be used. Edit stops by hand if a transition needs to be smoother or a colour needs adjusting.
Shapes where there are shapes
The aim is a trace that behaves like artwork a person might have drawn: shapes where there are shapes, and gradients where the original was smooth. It leaves you with a file that is lighter, closer to the original and much more practical to keep working on in Vectornation.
