Used WinTopo for Windows? Share your experience and help other users.


Key Details of WinTopo

  • Transform your scanned images and files into vector files.
  • Last updated on
  • There have been 5 updates
  • Virus scan status:

    Clean (it’s extremely likely that this software program is clean)


Editors’ Review

Download.com staff

Vectorization sounds complex, but in fact it's the fairly simple process of converting raster images, which we'll call "pictures," into vector sets that can be used in CAD, GIS, CNC, and similar digital design, control, and automation environments. Simple, yes; but elaborate in methods and processes. That's where WinTopo Standard enters the picture. It's a free tool for extracting vectors from JPEG, GIF, PNG, and other images. It's essentially a pared-down version of a pro tool, but its results are more than good enough for millions of users, apparently.

WinTopo's interface resembles the bulk of graphics and design tools out there, which is just fine since the basic file menu/toolbar/main window layout is hard to beat for efficiency. WinTopo Standard offers fewer features than the pro version, yet shares the same toolbar, so some buttons are inactive, such as the Best Combination thinning tool and Simple Edge Detection tool. WinTopo uses a two-stage process to extract vectors: thinning, which reduces the image elements to pixel lines, and extraction of real vectors from the lines; the freeware uses Stentiford and Zhang Suen thinning and Canny edge detection. You can also draw, crop, erase, and perform other simple image-editing tasks from the toolbar. We clicked on the button to set the options for single-click vectorization and opened an image. The One-Click button quickly processed the image, displaying vector lines in green over the original. We were able to save both the vectors and the image in a variety of formats, everything from machine-readable files to PDFs and JPEGs. Next we opened another image and tried thinning and extracting the image manually, with similar results. The Undo command doesn't seem to function in the freeware, which would seem to be an unwise omission since the freeware users are the ones who are likely to need it the most. Nevertheless, WinTopo proved plenty easy to use. We especially like its capability to directly acquire TWAIN images from a scanner or other source.

For people who don't want to spend big bucks just to digitize images for their geographical software or CNC lathe once in a while, WinTopo is just the thing. It's more than competent for many other applications, though.

What’s new in version 1.752

Version 1.752 has fixed an issue with saving certain vector file formats.


Explore More


Full Specifications

GENERAL
Release
Latest update
Version
1.752
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Platform
Windows
Operating System
  • Windows ME
  • Windows NT
  • Windows 95
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 7
  • Windows XP
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows 98
Additional Requirements
None
POPULARITY
Total Downloads
16,271
Downloads Last Week
3

Report Software

Program available in other languages


Last Updated


User Reviews

3.6/5

5 User Votes


Developer’s Description

Transform your scanned images and files into vector files.
WinTopo is an application for converting TIF, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP files and scanned images into useful vector files suitable for CAD, GIS and CNC applications. The freeware version is completely free for everyone to use. This is a highly capable piece of software which produces better results than most expensive commercial alternatives. Over a million users worldwide have already taken advantage of this powerful converter. For most people there is no need to look any further (or to spend any money). Download it right now and start converting your images with the One-Touch Vectorisation button.

Download.com
Your review for WinTopo