[GRASS-user] How to convert BMP & JPEG files to Shape(.shp) format

[Paulo Marcondes]

2008/8/27 Alpha GRASS <alpha.grass at gmail.com>:
>
> Dear all,
> I need to convert some maps like Bmp & Jpeg format files into Shape(.Shp)
> format on windows.

errr....

Look, in GIS parlance, bmp and jpg are raster formats. Shapefile is a
vector format.
So, no direct "conversion" between those.

What you would do in a strict GIS environment, is to register
(georeference) those images and then digitize whatever is important to
a vector file.

> can you please suggest me any open source tool to convert into shape files.

Most GISes, specially the free ones (GRASS/QGIS) allow you to load
those images and vectorize.
However, I remember seeing something about some program that allow you
to automagically vectorize a raster.

Doing a google search I found the program: http://potrace.sourceforge.net/
you can use it in Inkscape: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Potrace

the wikipedia also know something about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrace

there are others:
http://delineate.sourceforge.net/download.html

While not answering exactly your question, that was the best i could
find in google.

Remember: google is your friend.
-- 
Paulo Marcondes = PU1/PU2PIX
-22.915 -42.224 = GG86jc