Guide
Exporting 1-Bit Art as SVG
How the converter turns dithered pixels into a clean, infinitely scalable vector file — and when to choose it over PNG.
Why vector?
A PNG stores a fixed grid of pixels, so blowing it up makes the squares visible. An SVG stores shapes instead — tobitmap.com writes one rectangle per run of black cells — so the art stays perfectly crisp at any size, from a favicon to a wall print.
How the export works
After dithering, the image is a matrix of black and white cells. The exporter scans each row and merges neighbouring black cells into one wide rectangle (run-length encoding), which keeps the file small and clean. Halftone mode instead writes one <circle> per dot.
- Crisp at any scale — ideal for posters, packaging and signage.
- Editable — open it in Illustrator, Inkscape or Figma and recolour or reshape.
- Machine-ready — great for laser cutters, vinyl plotters and CNC that read vector paths.
- Tiny files — flat colour vector compresses far better than a detailed raster.
Watch the shape count
Very small pixel sizes create thousands of rectangles. The converter shows a live svg shapes count — if it climbs past ~60,000, raise the pixel size for a lighter file.
Very small pixel sizes create thousands of rectangles. The converter shows a live svg shapes count — if it climbs past ~60,000, raise the pixel size for a lighter file.
PNG or SVG?
| PNG | SVG | |
|---|---|---|
| Scaling | Fixed resolution | Infinite, no blur |
| Best for | Web, social, quick shares | Print, cutting, editing |
| Editable shapes | No | Yes |