X3F to SVG Converter

How to Convert X3F to SVG Online

1. Upload Your X3F File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select X3F RAW files from your Sigma camera card (SD9 / SD10 / SD14 / SD15 / SD1 Merrill, DP Merrill / DP Quattro, or SD Quattro / SD Quattro H). Batch is supported — drop in a whole shoot's worth of files at once and they're queued in parallel.
2. Set Number Precision (Optional): Open Advanced Options. The only exposed setting is the Number precision slider (1-10, default 6). It controls the decimal precision of coordinate values written into the SVG markup — useful for trimming a few kilobytes off the file or, at the top of the range, preserving sub-pixel positioning on huge canvases.
3. Pick a Recommended Precision Range: 4-6 is recommended for most use cases. Push it to 8-10 only if you plan to enlarge the SVG far beyond the embedded raster's pixel dimensions; drop it to 1-3 for the smallest output XML.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert". Each output is an XML SVG document with the rendered image embedded as a base64-encoded raster inside an <image> element — no sign-up, no watermark, no email gating. Download individually or as a ZIP.

What This Conversion Actually Does (Read This First)

X3F is a raster RAW format — every pixel is sensor data captured by Sigma's three-layer Foveon X3 sensor, with no shape, path, or vector geometry anywhere in the file. SVG is a vector format meant to describe shapes mathematically. There is no algorithm that turns a 14-megapixel photo of a landscape into clean geometric paths and preserves the photo: tracing a photographic image either produces a few hundred lumpy color blobs (lossy and unrecognisable) or hundreds of thousands of micro-paths (huge file, slow to render, no better than the original raster). Both the W3C SVG spec and the FreeConvert / Convertio implementations sidestep this by wrapping the raster — first demosaicing the X3F into a standard RGB raster (PNG or JPEG), then embedding that base64 payload inside an SVG <image> element. The result is technically a valid .svg file, opens in browsers and design tools, and can be placed on an infinitely scalable canvas — but the pixels inside scale exactly like any raster would. This is a feature/bug worth understanding before you commit. If you want a true vector trace (logos, line art, single-color silhouettes), see the alternatives below. Common reasons people still want X3F → SVG:

• Drop into Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD — Design tools accept .svg as a first-class asset. Wrapping the Foveon photo in SVG lets a designer place it on an artboard alongside actual vector UI elements without juggling file formats.
• Web embedding with a single asset type — Some build pipelines (Astro, Eleventy themes, MDX content) only inline SVGs by convention. Re-exporting the Sigma RAW as a self-contained SVG keeps the asset count down and lets the image inherit CSS sizing.
• Browser-native viewing on shared links — Browsers don't render X3F. Saving as SVG produces an .svg that any modern browser opens directly; recipients don't need Sigma Photo Pro or a RAW plugin.
• Print or large-format layout — Inkscape and Illustrator accept SVG and let you composite the embedded Foveon raster with vector overlays (text, shapes, crop masks). The raster inside still has fixed pixel dimensions, so check DPI for the print size you need.
• Archive a Foveon shot in a long-lived open format — SVG 1.1 is a W3C Recommendation (Second Edition, 16 August 2011). Sigma stopped shipping new Foveon cameras after the SD Quattro line (2016) and as of early 2026 the follow-up full-frame Foveon is still in development. Wrapping the RAW data — or more often the developed JPEG — in an open container keeps it accessible if proprietary decoders fall away.

Need true vector output? Trace tools like Vectorizer.AI or Inkscape's built-in tracer work far better on developed images than on RAW. Convert the X3F to PNG or JPG first, then run a vector trace. For non-photographic line art or logos already in raster form, JPG to SVG or PNG to SVG is a more natural path.

X3F vs SVG — Format Comparison

Number Precision Setting — What It Controls

Because XConvert's X3F → SVG path embeds the demosaiced raster rather than tracing paths, precision mostly affects metadata and <image> placement coordinates, not perceived image quality. The visible quality of the output is determined by the underlying raster, not the SVG number precision.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the resulting SVG file so large — almost the same size as a JPEG?

Because the SVG generated from a photographic source contains the full pixel data, base64-encoded inside an <image> element. Base64 adds roughly 33% overhead on top of the raw image bytes, plus a few hundred bytes of XML wrapper. So a 6 MB JPEG renders out as a ~8 MB SVG. There is no compression magic — .svg is plain text XML. If file size matters more than the .svg extension, convert your X3F to PNG or JPG instead.

Will my SVG be infinitely scalable like a real vector logo?

No — and this is the most common misunderstanding. Only the SVG canvas is vector. The embedded photograph is a raster locked at its original pixel dimensions. Enlarge the SVG 10x on screen and the pixels blow up exactly the way they would in a PNG. The "scalable" part of SVG only delivers on pure vector content (paths, shapes, text). To genuinely vectorise a photo you need an image-tracing tool, and even then photographs trace poorly — the technique works for logos, icons, and line art, not landscapes or portraits.

Does the conversion preserve Foveon's three-layer colour data?

No. The Foveon X3 sensor records red, green, and blue at every pixel via three stacked photodiodes, but that wide-gamut, three-layer raw data is collapsed to a standard 8-bit sRGB raster as part of demosaicing before it's wrapped into the SVG. If you need to preserve the full Foveon colour science, keep the X3F and edit it in Sigma Photo Pro, or export to a 16-bit format like TIFF or DNG instead.

Will the SVG open on my Sigma camera, in Photoshop, or in Lightroom?

The SVG opens directly in every modern browser, Inkscape, Illustrator, Figma, Sketch, and most operating-system image previews. Photoshop opens SVGs through Place / Open and rasterises them into a layer. Lightroom does not import SVG — it's a vector tool's domain. The camera itself can't display SVG either; it only previews its own X3F and JPEG output.

Can I edit the photo content after converting to SVG?

You can crop, mask, rotate, and apply CSS / SVG filters (blur, hue-rotate, drop-shadow) to the embedded raster. You cannot do tonal RAW edits like exposure recovery or white-balance correction — those need the original X3F in a RAW developer. The practical pattern is: develop the X3F in Sigma Photo Pro or RawTherapee, export a clean JPEG/PNG, then wrap to SVG only if your downstream tool needs the .svg extension.

What's the difference between this and using Sigma Photo Pro's export?

Sigma Photo Pro doesn't export SVG at all — it exports JPEG, TIFF, and X3I (its multi-shot format). The only way to land at SVG is either (a) re-wrap a developed raster the way XConvert does, or (b) trace a developed raster with a vector tool. XConvert handles (a) directly from the X3F so you don't run Sigma Photo Pro first.

Will text or vector overlays from my camera's metadata become real SVG text?

No. Sigma X3F files store XMP and proprietary metadata (camera model, ISO, lens info, shooting date), but none of that becomes editable SVG <text> elements in the output. The metadata is dropped or stuffed into the SVG <title> / <desc> elements depending on the converter. If you need a caption or watermark as real vector text, add it after conversion in Inkscape or Figma.

Are my X3F files safe — does anything get uploaded permanently?

Files process in your browser session and are removed after the session ends. No account is required and there are no watermarks, file-count limits, or hidden Pro tiers. Because the conversion runs in-browser, X3F files (which can be 20-50 MB each from a Merrill or Quattro body) never leave your machine in a persistent form.

What if I really want true vector art from my Foveon photo?

Three realistic paths: (1) develop the X3F to PNG or JPG, then run it through a dedicated tracer like Vectorizer.AI or Inkscape's Path > Trace Bitmap; expect best results on high-contrast subjects (silhouettes, logos against a clear background). (2) Hand-trace key shapes in Illustrator or Figma over the embedded raster as a guide layer. (3) Skip vectorisation entirely and treat the SVG <image> wrapper as a vector-canvas placeholder for the photo — which is what this converter produces.