Desktop & hardwareAmateur radio software
HamStream
A commercial desktop application for amateur radio operators, with a licensing system, release channels and a marketing site that sells and delivers it.
Case study hamstream.co.uk
Desktop & hardwareDesign & print tooling2026
VectorCreator
A desktop image-processing tool that converts raster artwork into clean, gradient-aware vector output through a multi-stage pipeline.
The brief
What we were asked for
Print production kept receiving low-resolution logos and artwork that had to be redrawn by hand. The brief was a tool that converts raster images to vector accurately enough to skip that step.
The challenge
What made it difficult
The constraints that shaped every decision after them.
- Automatic tracing usually destroys either fine detail or smooth gradients — the tolerance for both was near zero.
- Different artwork types need genuinely different treatment; one algorithm cannot serve a flat logo and a photograph.
- Processing whole batches had to stay fast enough to be practical.
What we built
How we solved it
The decisions that mattered, and why we made them.
01
A staged pipeline
Analysis, segmentation, tracing, simplification and output as distinct stages, each independently tunable.
02
Routing by artwork type
Input is profiled and routed to the treatment that suits it, with manual override where the operator knows better.
03
Gradient-aware output
Smooth transitions are preserved rather than posterised into bands.
04
Native performance
C++ with an established computer-vision library keeps batch processing practical rather than theoretical.
The outcome
Where it got to
- Artwork that previously needed manual redrawing is converted automatically.
- The pipeline is tunable per job rather than a single black box.
- Batch throughput makes it usable in a real production workflow.
Built with
Technology stack
- C++
- Qt 6
- OpenCV
- SVG output
- CMake
- vcpkg
Services used
More work
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