UI icons to vector graphics with clean stroked lines

[peteroupc]

It would be interesting to adapt this tracing algorithm to "vectorize" traditional user interface icons. In general, these icons are 16 colors or fewer and are 32 × 32 pixels (think of application icons and toolbar icons from the early to mid-1990s). The goal is to create scalable versions of these icons for display on screen, as follows:

• When rendered without antialiasing or scaling, the vector graphic should closely match the pixel image.
• Single-pixel, single-color line segments or curves should be rendered as line or curve commands.
• The scaling factors should range from 50% to 300%.
• Simple polygons of a single color in the input image should be rendered as such in the vector graphic.

For details and an example, see my document "Converting Pixel Images to Vector Graphics".

I note that this repository's algorithm consists of a clustering step and a tracing step. In the context of this discussion, clustering should not combine pixels of different colors, except possibly to detect areas with a checkerboard dither pattern as a single color.