Magic trace: click the parts of an image you want

Often you want one thing out of a picture. The mug on the table, the outline of a car, a single leaf from a photo of a hedge. Tracing the whole image and deleting everything else works, but it is slow. Magic trace in Vectornation by Zaweba turns that round: you pick the parts to trace on a placed image and only those become shapes.

How picking works

With a placed image, hover the pointer over it. Magic trace shows the area it would take if you clicked there. Click and that area is traced. Hold Shift and click again to add another area. Hold Alt and click to subtract an area from what you have. Ctrl+Z takes back the last pick if you went too far.

When the selection looks right, press Enter and the shape is created.

That hover preview is the useful part. You see what a click would catch before you commit, so you can move the pointer a little until the highlighted area matches what you mean.

Tolerance, edges and background

Three settings shape what a click catches. Tolerance decides how far colours can differ from the one under the pointer and still count. A low tolerance takes a tight, uniform patch. A high one spreads into neighbouring shades and catches more of the object in a single click, at the risk of spilling into the background.

Stop at edges keeps the area from creeping past a strong edge in the image, even when the colours on either side are similar. It is the setting that stops a pale object leaking into a pale wall.

Background mode is for the opposite job. When the background is simpler than the subject, it is often easier to pick the background and take what is left.

A practical way to work

Start with a modest tolerance and click the largest, most even part of the thing you want. Look at what was taken. Add the pieces it missed with Shift clicks, and if something from the background crept in, take it out with Alt. A few small clicks usually beat one big, greedy one.

Zoom in for the fiddly edges. Where an object meets its shadow, for instance, a lower tolerance and Stop at edges let you take the object and leave the shadow behind.

When the result is a single shape you are happy with, press Enter. From there it is an ordinary vector path, and the rest of the app's tools apply: smoothing, simplifying, recolouring, or keeping it as a clean silhouette of the object.

When to use the full Image Trace instead

Magic trace is for picking parts. If you want the whole image as vector art, with many colours, gradients and shared boundaries between shapes, the Image Trace panel is built for that, with its palette, levels and abutting options. The two work well together: trace the whole picture with Image Trace for an illustration, or lift one object with Magic trace for a cut path or a silhouette.

Common slips

Pressing Enter too early is the usual one. Check the edges at a decent zoom before you create the shape, because tidying a vector path afterwards takes longer than one more click.

Setting tolerance high to save clicks tends to cost time instead. A greedy click grabs part of the background, and you spend your saved clicks subtracting it again.

And remember Magic trace works on a placed image. If the picture is only on your clipboard, paste or place it first, then pick.