What a traced file looks like inside

The tracer writes one <path> element per colour, each with a fill and a d attribute holding the outline as move-to, line-to and cubic-curve commands. Shapes are ordered by area, largest first, so the background-like fills sit at the bottom of the stack. There are no groups per object, no strokes and no text elements: a logo's wordmark is a filled outline, not type.

The editor reads exactly that structure. Every path becomes a selectable shape and a row in the layer list, named by its colour.

Edits the browser editor handles well

  • Recolour a shape. Select it and pick a new fill. Because one path holds every region of that colour, recolouring "the blue" changes all the blue areas at once; if you need two of them to differ, that is a split for a desktop editor.
  • Move and scale. Drag to move, use the handles to resize. Scaling a vector never blurs it, so make a version sized for the page header and another for a favicon from the same file.
  • Reorder and hide. The layer list controls stacking. Moving a small shape above a large one fixes the common case where a badge fill hides a detail; hiding a layer lets you export one colour at a time.
  • Delete leftovers. Speckle paths and a leftover background rectangle are one click to remove. This is usually the first edit after a JPEG trace.
  • Export. Save the SVG, or export a PNG at a chosen pixel width with transparency preserved. Editing an unlocked result does not use additional credits.

The editor only ever opens vectors you own: your own uploaded SVG or a result you have unlocked. Previews are watermarked rasters and cannot be edited, which is how the paid vector stays off the network until it is paid for.

Edits that belong in a desktop vector editor

Some changes need access to individual nodes or boolean operations, which the browser editor does not offer:

  • Moving a single curve point to fix a wobble, or straightening one edge.
  • Splitting a colour into separate objects (the two blue shapes that must move independently).
  • Welding, subtracting and offsetting shapes — the operations cutting workflows often need.
  • Converting fills to strokes for pen plotters or single-line engraving.
  • Replacing traced letters with real text set in a font, then converting to outlines.

Inkscape (free, open source) handles all of these; so do the commercial editors. Open the SVG, use "Break apart" or the node tool as needed, and save. Because the file is plain SVG with standard path data, nothing about it is tied to png2svg.art.

A sensible order of work

  1. Unlock and open in the editor. Delete stray shapes, fix obvious colours, check stacking.
  2. Export the SVG. Run it through the optimiser if size matters (metadata stripping and coordinate rounding; check the reported before/after).
  3. Do node-level or boolean edits in a desktop editor.
  4. Keep the unlocked result in your files: re-downloading it is free while it is stored, and you can reopen it in the editor any time within the retention period.

Limits to keep in mind

  • The editor works with paths; it does not add text tools, strokes or gradients to a trace.
  • Very large traces (thousands of paths from a detailed illustration) are slow to manipulate in any browser; simplify the trace with a lower colour count before editing.
  • Exported PNGs are rasters at the size you choose — export at the largest size you will need, or keep using the SVG.