Introducing the Vectalyze desktop app
Native. Offline. No upload limits. The desktop app runs vtracer directly on your machine — here's what we built, why we chose Tauri, and what's coming next.
Introducing the Vectalyze Desktop App
Today we're shipping the Vectalyze desktop app for macOS and Windows. It's native, offline-capable, and built for users who need to convert large volumes of files without worrying about upload limits or bandwidth.
Why a desktop app?
The web app is fast and convenient. But we kept hearing the same feedback:
- "I have 200 files to convert — uploading each one is a pain"
- "I work with confidential brand assets that can't leave our network"
- "The web app is slow on large TIFFs"
Why Tauri?
We evaluated Electron, Tauri, and a pure native Swift/WinUI approach.
Electron was too heavy — 200 MB of Chromium to ship a file converter felt wrong.
Native Swift/WinUI would have meant two codebases and two teams.
Tauri v2 gave us a ~15 MB binary, a single codebase for both platforms, and the ability to run Rust code natively alongside a React frontend. We were already using Rust for the tracing library, so the fit was natural.
vtracer under the hood
The desktop app uses vtracer, a Rust crate developed by VisionCortex. Unlike potrace (which works on binary bitmaps), vtracer traces colour images directly by segmenting regions by colour before fitting paths.
This produces significantly better results on:
- Illustrations and logos with multiple colours
- Artwork with soft colour boundaries
- Photographs being converted to posterised vector art
What's included
- SVG, EPS, PDF, and DXF export
- All trace parameters available in the web app, plus colour-mode controls specific to vtracer
- Batch conversion: drop a folder, get a folder
- Completely offline — no account required to use
Pricing
The desktop app is a one-time purchase at $49. There's no subscription — you own the version you buy. Major version upgrades (v1 → v2) are offered at a discount to existing customers.
What's next
We're working on a watch-folder mode (drop files into a folder, get converted files automatically) and a CLI wrapper for automation workflows. Those will ship as free updates to v1.