How to Upload an SVG to Cricut Design Space

Before you start

Uploading your own SVG to Cricut Design Space is free and takes about a minute, on a computer or in the phone app. Most failed uploads come down to the file itself, so check it first.

1. Download the SVG. On any design page here, the top button downloads the solid SVG. For a layered design, open the editor, choose the Color style, set your colors and size, keep the format on SVG and download.
2. Find where it saved. That’s usually your Downloads folder. On Windows the file may be labeled as a browser or “HTML” document, because Windows opens SVGs in a browser by default, and that’s normal.
3. Unzip it if it came in a ZIP. Design Space can’t read an SVG that’s still inside a ZIP folder. Our files aren’t zipped, but files from bundles usually are.

The style you download matters as well. Solid is one shape in one color, which makes it the easiest cut and the best choice for single-color vinyl and stencils (engraving too). Color is split into layers that you cut from different materials and stack. Outline gives you a filled line around the edge for lighter-looking decals.

Upload on a computer

Cricut has renamed a few buttons between Design Space versions. The flow hasn’t changed, and the older names are noted below where they differ.

1. Open Design Space and start a New Project (or open the canvas).
2. Click Upload in the left-hand panel.
3. Click Upload Image, then Browse (or drag the file onto the window).
4. Select the file ending in .svg and open it.
5. Design Space shows a preview. Add a name and tags if you like, then click Upload (some versions say Save).
6. Your design appears at the start of Recent Uploads. Click it to select it, then click Add to Canvas (older versions say Insert Images).

The design lands on the canvas with its layers listed in the Layers panel on the right.

Upload on an iPhone, iPad or Android

1. Download the SVG in your phone’s browser. On iPhone and iPad, it goes to the Files app (usually the Downloads folder); on Android, to Downloads.
2. Open the Design Space app and start a new project.
3. Tap Upload, then choose to browse files.
4. Find the .svg file, tap it, review the preview and tap Upload.
5. Select it in your recent uploads and tap Add to Canvas.

If the file doesn’t show up, the download may not have finished or you may be looking in the wrong folder. Renaming the file in the Files app sometimes helps the app find it.

Set the size

Select the design and type a new W (width) or H (height) in the top bar. Keep the padlock closed so the proportions stay the same.

It’s easier to get the size right before the file ever reaches Design Space. Our editor’s size is the design’s longest side, in inches, centimeters or millimeters, and the SVG carries that size with it, so the design usually lands on the canvas ready to cut.

Each design page also lists a smallest size in its File details box. Go below it and thin parts can tear or get hard to weed.

Layers, Attach, Weld and Combine

A color SVG arrives as one group with a layer per color. When you click Make It, every color goes onto its own mat. Four tools in Design Space change that behavior.

• Click the eye icon to Hide a layer and leave it out of the cut, for example the backing layer when you only want the top color.
• Use Attach to keep pieces in the same position relative to each other on the mat. It helps when a single-color design has several separate pieces, such as a set of candy canes.
• Weld merges overlapping shapes into one outline and removes the cut lines inside. That’s handy for joining a design to a shape you added. It also flattens the colors into one, and you can’t easily undo it later, so duplicate the design before you weld in Cricut.
• Combine (Unite, Subtract, Intersect, Exclude) gives you finer control than Weld when you’re joining shapes or cutting one out of another.

Want the design cut out of a circle, tag or ornament shape? Our editor can do that before you download. Choose a background shape and tick Cut the design out of the shape.

Add an offset

An offset is a second outline drawn a set distance around the design. You’ll use one for sticker edges, and for the backing or shadow layer that sits behind a layered piece. To add an offset in Cricut Design Space, select the design and click Offset in the top bar, then set the distance and corner style.

Our editor can add the same border before you download, under Offset border. It arrives as its own layer in the color you chose, and it’s a real cut line rather than a stroke.

Mirror for iron-on vinyl

You cut iron-on (heat transfer) vinyl from the back, so an unmirrored design presses on backward. Design Space handles this on the Make It screen, where you turn on Mirror for each iron-on mat. Leave it unmirrored in our editor, or the two flips cancel out and you’re back to a backward shirt. The iron-on shirt guide covers the rest of the process.

Make It: material and test cut

1. Click Make It. Check that each mat has the colors and pieces you expect.
2. Connect your machine, choose the material (for example Premium Vinyl, Everyday Iron-On or Medium Cardstock) and the pressure.
3. Load the mat with the material’s color side matching the instructions (iron-on goes shiny side down).
4. For a new material, cut a small test shape first. Our designs are clean, closed outlines, so a good test cut means the full design will cut well too.

Fixing common problems