VectorWiz trace benchmark, October 2026
=======================================

What this is
------------
Eight simple test marks, each drawn as a clean vector with the fewest nodes
its shapes need, rendered to the kind of raster files customers send, then
auto-traced by two open-source tracers. Every file is here, so every number
in results.csv can be recounted.

Page: https://vectorwiz.com/guides/auto-trace-node-count-benchmark
Published by VectorWiz (Gigaverse Global LLC), 2026-10-23. License: CC BY 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Credit "VectorWiz trace
benchmark, October 2026".

Folders
-------
reference/  The eight marks as vectors. Built in code with the minimum nodes
            for each shape (a circle is four nodes). They are the target a
            redraw aims for; they were not redrawn by a designer.
source/     Each mark rendered twice:
              *-clean-png.png    1000 px wide PNG
              *-emailed-jpg.jpg  240 px wide JPEG, quality 60
traced/     Each source traced by:
              imagetracer  ImageTracer 1.2.6, default settings, given the
                           true color count (inks + white)
              potrace      Potrace 2.1.8 (npm port of the engine behind
                           Inkscape's Trace Bitmap), default settings, run
                           once per ink on a mask of the pixels nearest that
                           ink, i.e. given the exact palette
            The white background shape ImageTracer outputs is removed, since
            a redraw has none.

results.csv columns
-------------------
mark            test mark id
inks            colors in the mark other than white
condition       vector (reference), clean-png or emailed-jpg
method          reference, imagetracer or potrace
nodes           anchor points: the start of each subpath plus the end of each
                segment; a segment ending on the start point adds none
subpaths        separate outlines, holes included
open_subpaths   subpaths that do not close (none, in this run)
colors          distinct fill values in the file, white included
wrong_area_pct  share of the mark's area (pixels that are not white in the
                reference) that renders in a clearly different color from
                the reference, compared at 400 px wide
file            the file the row describes

Reproduce
---------
The scripts are in the VectorWiz repository: scripts/research/trace-benchmark.mjs
(generates everything here) and scripts/research/svg-nodes.mjs (the counter).

  npm install --prefix /tmp/bench imagetracerjs@1.2.6 potrace@2.1.8
  BENCH_TOOLS=/tmp/bench node scripts/research/trace-benchmark.mjs

Limits
------
- Eight geometric marks, not customer logos. No live type: the wordmark is
  block letters drawn as shapes.
- Two open-source tracers at default settings, one run each. Commercial
  tracers (Illustrator Image Trace, Vector Magic, AI vectorizers) were not
  tested here.
- Both tracers were told the right number of colors, which a real user
  usually is not. That flatters the tracers.
- A redraw works from the raster too, so it will not match the reference
  exactly. The reference shows the floor, not a designer's measured result.