A method includes accessing a digital image in a raster representation and identifying edges in the digital image. A set of curves are generated by fitting each of the edges with a corresponding curve. A curvilinear triangulation is generated to include the set of curves. The method further includes generating a gradient mesh based on the curvilinear triangulation, where the gradient mesh includes polygons of the curvilinear triangulation along with control points based on the curvilinear triangulation. A respective color is determined for each control point of the gradient mesh, based on pixel colors of pixels of the raster representation corresponding to the control points in the gradient mesh. The method further includes generating a vector representation of the digital image, where the vector representation includes the gradient mesh with colors of the control points.