Can Affinity Designer Vectorize an Image? It Finally Has Image Trace

Short answer: yes, now it can, and that "now" matters. For years, "Affinity has no auto-trace" was the correct answer and the app's most-requested missing feature; most forum threads and older tutorials you'll find still say it. The new unified Affinity app changed that: there's a real Image Trace command in the Vector menu that converts a raster image into editable vector curves. Affinity Designer 1 and 2 never got it, which is why the answer you find online depends entirely on when it was written.

So the honest breakdown has three parts: how the new Image Trace works and where its documented limits are, what to do if you're still on Designer 1 or 2, and when a dedicated vectorizer beats the built-in route even in the new app.

The quick version

• New unified Affinity app: yes. Select the image, then Vector menu → Image Trace. Two controls: Edge Threshold and Curve-fitting tolerance.
• Affinity Designer 1 and 2: no built-in trace, ever. Trace manually, or use an external vectorizer and import the SVG.
• It's grayed out? Per Affinity's docs, the selected layer must be a pixel or image layer.
• Documented limits: upsampled sources trace jagged, strokes one or two pixels wide can't be refined, and low-contrast edges get missed.
• Judge the output like any trace: editable paths, sane node counts, no wrapped raster.

The answer changed with the new Affinity

If you're searching this in 2026, you're landing in the middle of a version split. The classic Affinity Designer (versions 1 and 2) shipped a full vector toolset but no automatic tracing, the one famous gap next to Illustrator. The unified Affinity release that followed Designer 2 closed it: Image Trace is now a built-in command, and Affinity's own help positions it for exactly the jobs you'd expect, such as recreating logos and old artwork where the original file is gone.

That's why the advice online contradicts itself. Reddit threads and tutorials from the Designer 1/2 era correctly say "no auto-trace, draw it by hand or use another tool." Newer guides walk the built-in feature. Check which app you're actually running before following either.

How Image Trace works in the new app

Per Affinity's documentation, the flow is short:

1. Open or place your image and select it.
2. Choose Vector → Image Trace. If the command is grayed out, the selected layer isn't a pixel or image layer, which is the most common first stumble.
3. Set Edge Threshold: how sensitive the trace is to edges, which decides what becomes a vector object.
4. Optionally adjust Curve-fitting tolerance: how smooth or sharp the resulting outlines are.
5. Use the dialog's split view to drag across areas of interest and compare pixels to paths before committing.

There's also a genuinely nice refinement idea: where a boundary went undetected, you click inside the problem area and Affinity analyzes the surrounding colors and redraws the affected shapes with the missing edges inserted.

The honest limits, from the docs and the community

Affinity's own help is refreshingly clear about where the tool struggles, and early community threads ("is it me or is the trace terrible?") mostly map to the same three causes:

• Low-resolution or upsampled sources trace jagged. If the image was enlarged beforehand, the trace follows the old pixel grid instead of the object's edges. Garbage in, faithfully traced garbage out.
• Thin strokes can't be refined. The click-to-refine trick needs interior pixels to analyze; a line one or two pixels wide doesn't have any, per the docs.
• Low-contrast boundaries get missed. If the colors on both sides of an edge are too similar, lowering the threshold may not help, and refinement can't distinguish them either.

Add the universal caveat for any tracer: check what the output is like to edit. A trace can be visually faithful and still arrive as dense, fiddly paths, so run the same checks you'd run on any converter's output: click shapes to confirm they're editable, zoom for crispness, and look at the anchor-point count before building on it.

Still on Designer 1 or 2?

Nothing changed for you: there's no built-in trace, and there isn't going to be one in those versions. The workable routes are the same three the community has always used. Redraw over the image with the pen tool (best quality, slowest, and how manual tracing has always compared to auto-tracing). Use an external vectorizer and import the SVG, which Designer edits happily. Or move to the new unified app for the built-in command.

When a dedicated vectorizer still wins

Even with Image Trace built in, a purpose-built converter earns its place in a few situations:

• You're not at your desktop. The built-in flow lives in the app; a web vectorizer runs in any browser, including on your phone.
• Messy real-world sources. Noisy scans and compression-artifact-riddled logos are exactly where Affinity's docs say the threshold and refinement can fail; a tracer tuned for cleanup-free output handles more of them unattended.
• You care about the edit afterward. If the SVG is headed for recoloring, cutting, or client handoff, output tuned for low node counts and per-color editable shapes saves the cleanup pass. That's the yardstick our vectorizer comparison ranks everything by, including the tool this blog belongs to.

What this looks like with PerfectVector

The workflow mirrors what Photoshop users without auto-trace have always done, minus the manual half: upload your image (PNG, JPG, or WebP up to 5MB), get back clean, low-node paths with each color as its own editable shape, merge or recolor in the built-in editor, and import the SVG into Affinity, any version, for the actual design work. First conversions are free, no credit card required. If you're in the new Affinity with a clean, high-resolution source, the built-in trace may be all you need; the dedicated route is for everything that isn't that.

FAQ

Does Affinity Designer have an image trace option? The new unified Affinity app does: Vector menu → Image Trace, with Edge Threshold and Curve-fitting tolerance controls. Affinity Designer 1 and 2 do not have any built-in trace, which is why older answers online say no.

How do I vectorize an image in Affinity Designer 2? Designer 2 has no auto-trace. Either redraw the image manually with the pen tool, or convert it with an external vectorizer and import the resulting SVG, which Designer 2 edits normally.

Why is Image Trace grayed out in Affinity? Per Affinity's documentation, the selected layer must be a pixel layer or an image layer. Select the actual image layer rather than a group, curve, or empty selection and the command becomes available.

Why does my Affinity Image Trace look bad? The usual causes match the documented limits: an upsampled or low-resolution source (the trace follows the old pixel grid), strokes too thin to refine, or edges with too little color contrast to detect. Start from the highest-resolution original you have and adjust Edge Threshold before blaming the tool.

Is Affinity's Image Trace on iPad too? Affinity's help documents the desktop flow, and community tutorials cover tracing on the iPad in the new app. Check the Vector menu in your platform's version; on Designer 2 for iPad there is no trace at all.

Should I use Affinity's Image Trace or a dedicated vectorizer? For a clean, high-resolution source inside the new app, the built-in trace is convenient and immediate. For messy sources, work away from your desktop, or output you'll heavily edit, recolor, or cut, a dedicated vectorizer tuned for clean, low-node paths is the safer default.

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The famous gap is closed, with asterisks. If your Affinity has the Vector menu command, try it on a good source and check the paths it hands back. And when the source is rough or the output needs to survive real editing, trace it into a clean, editable SVG and bring that into Affinity instead.