Do These AI Generators Really Create Vector Images That Look Crisp at Any Size?

There’s a growing number of vector image generators available, but are all AI vector generators made equal? It takes some testing to find out if your generated vector results are crisp, sharp, editable, and scalable.

When Adobe introduced its text-to-vector generative AI tool to Illustrator, it was the most comprehensive vector generator around. With the power of Adobe Firefly, the results have to be good. And they are.

As with other Adobe generative AI tools, your prompt results in three or four—depending on the software—variations, meaning that in a matter of seconds you can create multiple vectors from a short text prompt.

The best thing about Illustrator’s text-to-vector graphic tool is that the results are real and true graphic vectors—they’re infinitely scalable, and they can be recolored with Illustrator’s Recolor tool and edited as if you’d drawn them from scratch.

You can do everything within Illustrator’s software without needing third-party tools to reformat or change any part of your vectors.

Recraft’s AI vector generator is the best free vector generator I’ve found. Not only is it cost-free to generate—although you can upgrade for more features—but you can also export your vectors in SVG format, as well as other formats including Lottie files for animation.

The vectors I generated with Recraft are totally editable, you can remove the background, and they can be scaled to any size while remaining crisp and sharp—all the hallmarks of a true vector graphic.

The AI generator lets you choose a vector style (such as vector art or lino cut), a size ratio, how much the details of your prompt matter, and it also includes a color palette option. You can even specify what not to include in the generated results. You’ll receive two vectors after a 15-second waiting period, then you can duplicate, edit, or regenerate for more precise results.

Canva’s AI vector generator comes from one of Canva’s built-in apps, Illustroke—you need to sign in to your Illustroke account via Canva apps. None of Canva’s native Magic Media AI tools have a vector generator, although there are text-to-image tools that create graphics of varying styles.

Using a text prompt, you can choose an art style for your vector graphic before generating it. You’ll receive three variations.

Bringing your vector graphic to your Canva artboard, you’ll be able to edit the colors of the Canva SVG, but you won’t have any further editability. The generated vector has an attached background, which you can’t remove without Canva Pro—and you can’t save SVG projects unless you’re a Pro user either.

To access your Canva-made vector generations, go to Illustroke’s website and sign in. Here, you can download the vectors in SVG and other formats, which you can open in external software for full editability, background removal, and infinitely scale for crisp results.

There are two options for generating vector graphics with Kittl’s AI tools: the AI Image Generator or the AI Logo Generator. Be aware, that although free users can generate vectors, you must be a Kittl Pro subscriber to download them in SVG format, thus retaining their true vector characteristics. Pro users can subscribe for $10 per month.

Using Kittl’s AI Image Generator, you can choose Vector Styles as the output; however, this doesn’t generate a fully editable vector graphic. You can change the color, but it’s all one color and can’t be separated. You can’t move or edit individual parts of the vector within Kittl’s tools.

Kittl also provides an AI Logo Generator, which offers more vector features than its Vector Styles option in the image generator. Using this feature creates editable, separable vector elements.

VectorArt’s homepage claims you can create vector images using AI and that the results are infinitely scalable vectors for multiple uses. This is promising. The tool is pricey, at $29 per month for Premium and $99 per month for Unlimited. Free users can generate some images for free.

Along with the text prompt and art style choice, you can add a reference sketch or image to help guide the AI to what you want. Once generated, VectorArt has a simple editing tool you can use to change individual colors of parts of your generated vector graphic. You can also draw and erase parts of it too. Most browser-based tools don’t offer editing.

Although you can generate the vectors for free, you must be a subscriber to download your vector as an SVG. VectorArt only offers SVG downloads, meaning the results will be crisp and scalable.

This tool is labeled as an AI vector graphic generator. You can generate and download vector graphics at VectorMind for free, with better licensing and more credits at $19.99 for the Pro subscription.

VectorMind’s AI Vector Graphic Generator is disappointing. My generation resulted in a full-color fluffy realistic 3D image of a panda holding a coffee. Vectors cannot have texture, color gradients, or 3D rendering, and are very difficult to achieve with full color; this would be a raster, not a vector.

After the disappointing non-vector generation, I noticed I could still download it as an SVG, and below that option was a button that said “Vectorize”, which I selected to see if I could find my vector results.

The Vectorize button is not an AI tool. It uses color thresholds and other editing features to reduce colors and rendering, making a flatter version of your generated image. While these may be created as true vectors—using mathematic equations for scalability—they do not look good and I don’t want to use those results for my vector.

When searching for AI vector generators, be sure to check out how the tools categorize vectors. A true vector graphic is flat color—even with multiple colors—and often simple in design. When downloading your generated vectors, if you can’t download it in an SVG format, it will never result in a sharp and infinitely scalable vector graphic. Some generators only produce vector-style graphics, which are not actual vectors.