It’s been a while since I’ve featured one of these online services that eliminates the need for getting stand-alone software to do some menial tasks for you.

VectorMagic (yup, it’s from Stanford) an online tool that lets you convert raster images (like GIF, JPG, and PNG) files into vector graphics.

Most graphics designers doing logos and such opt to illustrate using vector since this would allow them to readily scale images without any loss in quality (except especially when they’re dealing with photos since these are inherently raster). This is because vector images uses lines (hence, vector) calculated by the computer and fill information instead of pixel by pixel information.

It offers a pretty simple process with the first page containing nothing but a browse and upload line. Then it takes you to a second interface that takes you through a 3-step wizard that asks you a few things like the nature of the image (whether it’s a logo or photo), image quality, and number of colors.

Just take a look at how it converts the Windows Vista logo (you can expect a few mismatches since this one relies heavily on shading):

Afterwards, you can download the result in a variety of lossless formats like PNG, SVG, and EPS.