Guide · 4 min read

Image Trace in Affinity: the steps, the two settings, and the fixes.

How to use Image Trace in Affinity on a logo: the steps, what its two settings do, where it is and where it is not, and why traced corners come out round.

A house gable built of flat shapes: a terracotta triangle roof over an ink navy square wall with a sand yellow square window, and a sand yellow triangle beside the wall, on a transparent background
The PNG as uploaded965 KBVecSnap's SVG0.36 KB14 anchor points

To use Image Trace in Affinity, select a placed picture, open Vector › Image Trace, drag Edge Threshold until the shapes you want appear, set Curve-fitting tolerance to smooth or sharpen their outlines, and apply. Image Trace is in the free Affinity for Mac and Windows; Affinity's help says it is not in Affinity for iPad. It follows the picture's pixels, so a logo's soft edges can come out as rounded corners and thin gray shapes: start from the largest copy, or have it drawn again as shapes.

Updated 10 sources ↓

The steps

How do I use Image Trace in Affinity?

Select the picture, open Vector › Image Trace, drag Edge Threshold, set Curve-fitting tolerance if you need to, and apply. The result is curves you can edit.
  1. File › Place, and choose your picture.
  2. Select it: a pixel layer or an image layer.
  3. Vector › Image Trace opens its dialog and a live preview.
  4. Drag Edge Threshold until every shape you need appears.
  5. Set Curve-fitting tolerance to smooth or sharpen the outlines.
  6. Compare in the split view, then apply.

The settings

What do Edge Threshold and Curve-fitting tolerance do?

Edge Threshold decides what counts as an edge, so what becomes a shape. Curve-fitting tolerance decides how smooth or sharp the outlines are. Affinity names no other setting: no presets, no number of colors.

Where it is

Does Affinity have Image Trace, on iPad or in Designer 2?

Yes, in the new, free Affinity for Mac and Windows. Not on iPad: Affinity's help says Image Trace is only in Affinity for desktop. Designer 2 has none; Image Trace came with the new Affinity.

On an iPad, place an SVG made elsewhere: Affinity for iPad opens SVG files.

  • Affinity for Mac and Windows

    Image Trace
    Yes: Vector › Image Trace
    Good to know
    Free, with a Canva account

  • Affinity for iPad

    Image Trace
    Not yet, by Affinity's help
    Good to know
    Out since November 2, 2026

  • Affinity Designer 2

    Image Trace
    No
    Good to know
    Image Trace is new in the new Affinity

Round corners

Why does Image Trace round my corners?

Because it follows the pixels, and in a picture a corner is a few pixels of blended color. Drawn again as shapes, a corner stays a point.

Affinity's own advice: trace the largest copy you have. A small picture enlarged before tracing gives outlines that follow its pixel grid.

Its pixelsthe PNG as it is
Enlargedthe same pixels, smoothed
Drawn againVecSnap's SVG
The same 28 × 28 pixels of a 2,048 px PNG, enlarged to fill each pane.

Gray shapes

Why does Image Trace add gray shapes to my logo?

Because the picture holds far more colors than you see: every edge is a band of in-between shades, and a trace can turn them into thin shapes of their own. Drawn again, the logo keeps the colors you meant.
Count the colors
An architecture studio's gable mark, as the picture was madePNGpixels
4,471distinct colors in the picture
An architecture studio's gable mark: VecSnap's SVGVecSnapSVG
3colors in the SVG

In “Every color”, each distinct color is painted its own hue, ranked by how much of the file it covers: the same rule on both files, worked out in your browser from the files themselves.

Without tracing

How do I vectorize a logo without Image Trace?

Have it drawn again as shapes instead of following its pixels. Drop it here: VecSnap gives back an SVG with each color one shape and few anchor points, which Affinity opens as curves.

Drop your logo. Get its SVG.

  1. Drop the logo you would have traced.
  2. VecSnap draws it again as shapes, look-alike shades merged into the colors you see.
  3. Download the SVG, then File › Place it in Affinity.

Questions

Image Trace in Affinity, answered.

Sources

Yes. Affinity is free for Mac and Windows with a Canva account, and Image Trace is not among the Canva AI tools a paid plan unlocks.

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