Sketch 2026.3 overhauls vector engine, adds noise-free auto-trace

Design · 4 min read

Sketch 2026.3 focuses on core vector improvements, rewriting path stitching and boolean operations to reduce artifacts and improve boolean stability. The company reports performance gains on complex artboards with hundreds of boolean shapes.

The new noise-free auto-trace converts raster assets into clean vectors by leveraging a denoising algorithm tailored for UI elements, removing common pixelated artifacts while retaining anchor control for fine edits. Designers can now import screenshots or exported PNGs and produce production-ready SVGs with minimal cleanup.

Sketch also updated its plugin API to handle streaming AI outputs, enabling plugins to insert incremental vector deltas rather than overwriting entire layers. This change is expected to accelerate integrations with generative tools and real-time assistants.