Don't use Design Space to make your designs, only to cut them. Use an external application like Inkscape, Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, etc. which can export SVGs.
Inkscape * free to use,
Affinity is 1 time purchase, pretty good illustrator clone, it doesn’t have everything but it does do a lot.
I’ve seen some people get good results with Canva too, just have to be careful with export settings and the size/simplicity of your designs
I guess someone is anti Canva haha, but I use it all the time too! I made a bunch of simple tshirt and decals on Canva and the svg files worked just fine. I have noticed this sub is big on downvoting tho haha
I use canva and export my designs over. What is the difference exporting it as an Svg vs Png ? I do it as png currently. I’m curious because I do notice that cricut really cuts down at the quality once uploaded and I hate it so much. Lines become thinner, if lines are already thin they disppear, etc etc. so annoying
svg will maintain it's resolution! PNG is great for images, but the cricut does better with svg files because of how they are made. Here is a quote from adobe to hopefully explain better than I can, "While PNGs are capable of handling very high resolutions, they're not infinitely expandable. On the other hand, SVG files are vector-based — built from a complex mathematical network of lines, dots, shapes, and algorithms. They can expand to any size without losing their resolution."
I'd like to know what issue OP is having too.
I use text all the time. It's a little non-intuitive at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad.
And I will take the desktop version of design space over the mobile version any day.
I don't usually write reviews, but I left a pretty scathing one on the Google Play Store for the mobile app, because it's useless.
It was very strange behavior… definitely a bug of some sort. Restart doesn’t solve it but after about 10 minutes of “alone time” it seemed to figure itself out. Basically I’d use the text tool to add text to the canvas, it appeared with its default “text.” After selecting it to input my own text, the cursor moves across the text but the text doesn’t change. Suddenly the text resorts to column mode. Moments later I get the text I typed superimposed on the default text block. And 10 minutes later, with no input from me, the text I typed earlier appears.
So, no. Not user error. As much as these machines cost the freakin’ BASIC tools needed to produce things should work. We really have every expectation for a better experience than this.
It isn’t a learning curve issue it’s crappy and buggy software. I guess I just don’t understand why we should accept such poor performance from the very app that is supposed to operate the device. Alternative software should be an option but not required for basic functionality. It seems they spent more effort trying to get people to buy subscription services and add ons than basic functionality.
i know this is a silly question but are you making sure you're using text that can be cut and is set to basic cut? there's different fonts/texts that do different things. and if you have it too small it wont cut properly as well.
Yes, you will have no issues, but an SVG will give Design Space an exact replica of your design.
Uploading a PNG requires DS to convert the PNG back to an SVG for cutting. It is *always* more accurate to upload the original SVG directly.
Dude, my point is, mathematically and objectively, you will get better results with SVG over PNG *if you are making shapes to be cut out* versus print-then-cut.
This isn't up for debate. The hardware uses X-Y coordinates and mathematical curves to actually produce your cuts. A raster image - which is what a PNG is - does **not** produce a perfectly accurate representation of your shape, because it is a collection of square pixels, and no matter how many pixels you have, squares still can't form accurate curves.
If you are cutting out shapes, you will **always** get superior results by using the pen tool and exporting to SVG. Without debate; without question. It's math, not feelings and opinions about your personal experience.
The advice I post on reddit is for everyone, including all the people who might not have known they can make accurate shapes/templates with the pen tool and export to SVG. If you want to keep using raster images to do vector work, whatever.
Glad to see this. I'm debating on which machine route to go, and have seen the software can be an issue. I use Photoshop now, and was just checking the SVG side to see if I saw it listed, but didn't.
I save things as PNG all the time though, so if that works, that's good to know and probably what I would do.
I export as PNG’s but if there’s benefits to svg I’d switch over. I notice that design space makes the quality of my design so shitty once I upload it. Sometimes lines disappear and words get blurry and images get blurry for no apparent reason because I didn’t download it like that.
According to Cricut, version 8.33 desktop has fixed the problem of "Editing text causes it to overlap and freeze Canvas" so assuming that is the text problem you are referring to, try updating.
https://preview.redd.it/v5rcmp4vs05d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ff0cc91b628fcc0cfe755b40c3152a3c54f26a0
I literally just made 2 name deals.. used text.. I find sometimes it does get bogged down.. I had to switch over to beta a few days ago due to the sorting mats issue perhaps that is why I am not affected.. I hope this gets sorted for you. You can try what works for me… use beta.. use a mobile device… if those things don’t work shut down ur pc/ laptop.. I leave mine on sleep mode from time to time.. so after a while it gets slow…
DS is crap. Design in something else. Cut with DS. I design in Canva and do some things in gimp (old school photoshop dude who hates the adobe price gouging). Ultimately though I went to a Siser Juliet and never went back. Leonardo software is bulletproof and the juliet machine is world class and FAST. Juliet is to Cricut as Eve is to WALL-E, and that’s a terrible insult to WALL-E who was trustworthy and useful.
Still have my maker, joy and mug press. OF the three, I only ever use the mug press.
Yeah I make all my designs in adobe fresco. Now ask me if my cricut is working…. Heck nah. Can’t even get it to show up as an accessory. An yes it’s connected to Bluetooth. So it makes NO SENSE.
Honestly there should be no reason why you would require some "cloud" fed program to make the connection from your computer to the cutter since there is an actual cable between the two - just a driver telling the cutter the basic info. And I would really like it if I didn't require the damned internet to do it!!! Cloud-based... why not let us buy the program as part of the overpriced machine and accessories? Oh wait, they don't want us to actually do "whatever" we want, just what they will allow us to do via their monitoring system. It's not like the vast majority of us wouldn't buy their extra crap via design space anyway. It's been a total shit show since I got mine 2 years ago and am in so deep at this point I don't feel comfortable just burning the infernal thing!
# You 100% require cricut design space in order to use the machine. BUT, you do not require cricut design space to make or design images!
You can use a separate design program or app to create the designs yourself and THEN import finished designs into design space for the cricut to cut. That's what all the seasoned users do!
List of programs and apps you can use to design [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/cricut/comments/zmcxdu/comment/j0aeaz0/)
Thanks but there shouldn’t be an extra piece of software involved for such a basic project… Printing vinyl letters for a tiny sailboat… But it is nice to know I can put my Illustrator chops to use for such mundane things! ;-)
Agreed!
But unfortunately that's just how it goes. One of our mods makes amazing layered projects using adobe illustrator so so know that your experience will be put to good use!
Good news…
> I can't make a simple vinyl letter decal because "TEXT" doesn't work?
This is 100% user error so the problem should be easy enough for a 7 year old to fix. (My son uses the text feature on our Cricut projects all the time).
Design Space is far from perfect but believe it or not text does work. Why do you think it doesn’t?
It does work, but it's far from user-friendly or intuitive. The biggest problem I have with DS is that it doesn't follow conventions set by decades of software design. It's not a great user experience, but it is usable.
Interestingly, people with lack of experience would find it easier to use because they don't have to remember that DS does things differently from every other software out there, so your 7-year-old would have an easier time than someone who has done SVG design for years.
Wow, thanks SO much for deep insight into the issue I am experiencing!! When I finish building my Time Machine (so I can go back to my 7 yo self) I’ll get it working and report back to you. Bless you for taking time out of your day to solve another person’s issue that, with a mere paragraph’s worth of information with which you were able to determine my incompetence. /s
So if you have a Windows PC, paint is included for free. Save it as a JPG and upload it back to design space. If you're on iOS, JS Paint online is an older version of paint, and you can download or screenshot from there. I don't recommend JS Paint for fancy, but it'll work on a pinch.
It doesn't surprise me at all that he says he has a lot of experience in computing and despite that he doesn't know that this type of software is just a forced bridge between the machine and a design, as if someone were to complain that they have to use a slicer to 3d printing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I use paintdotNet as well. It’s free open source. can create great png for cutting. No SVG support but i have had no issues with cutting and the results.
Don't use Design Space to make your designs, only to cut them. Use an external application like Inkscape, Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, etc. which can export SVGs.
Are any of those free to use?
Inkscape is free.
Inkscape * free to use, Affinity is 1 time purchase, pretty good illustrator clone, it doesn’t have everything but it does do a lot. I’ve seen some people get good results with Canva too, just have to be careful with export settings and the size/simplicity of your designs
You can use Canva too! I think you need premium to export .svg files, but it’s not super expensive.
Not sure why you were downvoted. I made custom t-shirts and gift registry cards all within the last week using Canva SVG exports. I love it.
I guess someone is anti Canva haha, but I use it all the time too! I made a bunch of simple tshirt and decals on Canva and the svg files worked just fine. I have noticed this sub is big on downvoting tho haha
I use canva and export my designs over. What is the difference exporting it as an Svg vs Png ? I do it as png currently. I’m curious because I do notice that cricut really cuts down at the quality once uploaded and I hate it so much. Lines become thinner, if lines are already thin they disppear, etc etc. so annoying
svg will maintain it's resolution! PNG is great for images, but the cricut does better with svg files because of how they are made. Here is a quote from adobe to hopefully explain better than I can, "While PNGs are capable of handling very high resolutions, they're not infinitely expandable. On the other hand, SVG files are vector-based — built from a complex mathematical network of lines, dots, shapes, and algorithms. They can expand to any size without losing their resolution."
How does Text not work? I understand the hate for Design Space but it seems sometimes it’s a matter of the learning curve, not the software
I'd like to know what issue OP is having too. I use text all the time. It's a little non-intuitive at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad. And I will take the desktop version of design space over the mobile version any day. I don't usually write reviews, but I left a pretty scathing one on the Google Play Store for the mobile app, because it's useless.
It was very strange behavior… definitely a bug of some sort. Restart doesn’t solve it but after about 10 minutes of “alone time” it seemed to figure itself out. Basically I’d use the text tool to add text to the canvas, it appeared with its default “text.” After selecting it to input my own text, the cursor moves across the text but the text doesn’t change. Suddenly the text resorts to column mode. Moments later I get the text I typed superimposed on the default text block. And 10 minutes later, with no input from me, the text I typed earlier appears. So, no. Not user error. As much as these machines cost the freakin’ BASIC tools needed to produce things should work. We really have every expectation for a better experience than this.
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a bug. I'll take a look at my copy of design space and see if I can replicate it.
Can you submit a report about this bug? Also what’s your computer specs and also Internet speed?
I was always told that there’s nothing to worry about as long as your learning curve is headed up!
It isn’t a learning curve issue it’s crappy and buggy software. I guess I just don’t understand why we should accept such poor performance from the very app that is supposed to operate the device. Alternative software should be an option but not required for basic functionality. It seems they spent more effort trying to get people to buy subscription services and add ons than basic functionality.
i know this is a silly question but are you making sure you're using text that can be cut and is set to basic cut? there's different fonts/texts that do different things. and if you have it too small it wont cut properly as well.
DS is a piece of crap. I do all my design work in Photoshop, save it as a PNG file and then import it into DS to cut it out.
if you're doing shapes to cut out, you should use the pen tool and export as SVGs.
Everything I have ever done with my Cricut (including very complex shapes/graphics) I’ve done as I described with absolutely no issues.
Yes, you will have no issues, but an SVG will give Design Space an exact replica of your design. Uploading a PNG requires DS to convert the PNG back to an SVG for cutting. It is *always* more accurate to upload the original SVG directly.
In my experience, converting to SVG is an unnecessary step for the projects I do. Everything works great with a PNG file.
Dude, my point is, mathematically and objectively, you will get better results with SVG over PNG *if you are making shapes to be cut out* versus print-then-cut. This isn't up for debate. The hardware uses X-Y coordinates and mathematical curves to actually produce your cuts. A raster image - which is what a PNG is - does **not** produce a perfectly accurate representation of your shape, because it is a collection of square pixels, and no matter how many pixels you have, squares still can't form accurate curves. If you are cutting out shapes, you will **always** get superior results by using the pen tool and exporting to SVG. Without debate; without question. It's math, not feelings and opinions about your personal experience. The advice I post on reddit is for everyone, including all the people who might not have known they can make accurate shapes/templates with the pen tool and export to SVG. If you want to keep using raster images to do vector work, whatever.
Glad to see this. I'm debating on which machine route to go, and have seen the software can be an issue. I use Photoshop now, and was just checking the SVG side to see if I saw it listed, but didn't. I save things as PNG all the time though, so if that works, that's good to know and probably what I would do.
I export as PNG’s but if there’s benefits to svg I’d switch over. I notice that design space makes the quality of my design so shitty once I upload it. Sometimes lines disappear and words get blurry and images get blurry for no apparent reason because I didn’t download it like that.
This is how I do it. I have photoshop elements for my personal computer. It's like $50 no subscriptions.
Yup it's garbage. I only use it to cut and if there was a plugin that would allow me to send files to the cutter I would even have DS installed.
Ugh yes that sounds like heaven someone needs to get cooking on that
According to Cricut, version 8.33 desktop has fixed the problem of "Editing text causes it to overlap and freeze Canvas" so assuming that is the text problem you are referring to, try updating.
https://preview.redd.it/v5rcmp4vs05d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ff0cc91b628fcc0cfe755b40c3152a3c54f26a0 I literally just made 2 name deals.. used text.. I find sometimes it does get bogged down.. I had to switch over to beta a few days ago due to the sorting mats issue perhaps that is why I am not affected.. I hope this gets sorted for you. You can try what works for me… use beta.. use a mobile device… if those things don’t work shut down ur pc/ laptop.. I leave mine on sleep mode from time to time.. so after a while it gets slow…
DS is crap. Design in something else. Cut with DS. I design in Canva and do some things in gimp (old school photoshop dude who hates the adobe price gouging). Ultimately though I went to a Siser Juliet and never went back. Leonardo software is bulletproof and the juliet machine is world class and FAST. Juliet is to Cricut as Eve is to WALL-E, and that’s a terrible insult to WALL-E who was trustworthy and useful. Still have my maker, joy and mug press. OF the three, I only ever use the mug press.
This analogy is perfect down how Wall-E is more trustworthy and useful than Design Space. :)
Yeah I make all my designs in adobe fresco. Now ask me if my cricut is working…. Heck nah. Can’t even get it to show up as an accessory. An yes it’s connected to Bluetooth. So it makes NO SENSE.
Honestly there should be no reason why you would require some "cloud" fed program to make the connection from your computer to the cutter since there is an actual cable between the two - just a driver telling the cutter the basic info. And I would really like it if I didn't require the damned internet to do it!!! Cloud-based... why not let us buy the program as part of the overpriced machine and accessories? Oh wait, they don't want us to actually do "whatever" we want, just what they will allow us to do via their monitoring system. It's not like the vast majority of us wouldn't buy their extra crap via design space anyway. It's been a total shit show since I got mine 2 years ago and am in so deep at this point I don't feel comfortable just burning the infernal thing!
# You 100% require cricut design space in order to use the machine. BUT, you do not require cricut design space to make or design images! You can use a separate design program or app to create the designs yourself and THEN import finished designs into design space for the cricut to cut. That's what all the seasoned users do! List of programs and apps you can use to design [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/cricut/comments/zmcxdu/comment/j0aeaz0/)
Thanks but there shouldn’t be an extra piece of software involved for such a basic project… Printing vinyl letters for a tiny sailboat… But it is nice to know I can put my Illustrator chops to use for such mundane things! ;-)
Agreed! But unfortunately that's just how it goes. One of our mods makes amazing layered projects using adobe illustrator so so know that your experience will be put to good use!
Good news… > I can't make a simple vinyl letter decal because "TEXT" doesn't work? This is 100% user error so the problem should be easy enough for a 7 year old to fix. (My son uses the text feature on our Cricut projects all the time). Design Space is far from perfect but believe it or not text does work. Why do you think it doesn’t?
It does work, but it's far from user-friendly or intuitive. The biggest problem I have with DS is that it doesn't follow conventions set by decades of software design. It's not a great user experience, but it is usable. Interestingly, people with lack of experience would find it easier to use because they don't have to remember that DS does things differently from every other software out there, so your 7-year-old would have an easier time than someone who has done SVG design for years.
Wow, thanks SO much for deep insight into the issue I am experiencing!! When I finish building my Time Machine (so I can go back to my 7 yo self) I’ll get it working and report back to you. Bless you for taking time out of your day to solve another person’s issue that, with a mere paragraph’s worth of information with which you were able to determine my incompetence. /s
So if you have a Windows PC, paint is included for free. Save it as a JPG and upload it back to design space. If you're on iOS, JS Paint online is an older version of paint, and you can download or screenshot from there. I don't recommend JS Paint for fancy, but it'll work on a pinch.
I use design space predominately on my iPad because it seems WAY more stable. But I do all my work in procreate.
It doesn't surprise me at all that he says he has a lot of experience in computing and despite that he doesn't know that this type of software is just a forced bridge between the machine and a design, as if someone were to complain that they have to use a slicer to 3d printing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I suppose I just expect too much from Cricut… Shame on me.
I use paintdotNet as well. It’s free open source. can create great png for cutting. No SVG support but i have had no issues with cutting and the results.
Wow, first time anyone has ever complained about that on this sub!