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Steps written out by Crafting Step by Step from Alisha Conn's video (opens YouTube) (7:40). Published .
An SVG is a picture saved as outlines instead of dots. A cutting machine reads those outlines as cut lines, which is why Cricut and Silhouette crafters want SVG files and why a plain JPEG cuts badly or not at all. You make an SVG by tracing a picture into outlines, and a free program called Inkscape does the tracing for you.
Alisha Conn shows the whole thing in her video in under eight minutes: open a black and white ice cream clip art in Inkscape, trace it, delete the original, save the result as an SVG, and load it into Cricut Design Space to prove it works. You need a computer, Inkscape (free for Windows, Mac and Linux) and a clean image.
The trace follows the edge between dark and light, so the best images are bold black lines on white with no shading. Line-art clip art, simple silhouettes and your own marker drawings scanned or photographed flat all trace cleanly. Photos, soft watercolor and anything with gradients turn into blotches.
Check what you are allowed to do with the art. Clip art you buy usually comes with a license that says whether you can sell what you make from it. Tracing someone else's design does not make it yours, so trace your own drawings or art licensed for it.
Alisha uses an older Inkscape where you right-click the image and pick Trace Bitmap. In Inkscape 1.x it lives under Path, then Trace Bitmap (Shift+Alt+B). Choose Single scan and Brightness cutoff. The threshold decides what counts as dark: raise it to catch thin, light lines, lower it to drop specks and smudges. Click Update or turn on Live Preview to see the result before you apply it.
Want more than one color? Multiple scans with Colors makes one outline per color, stacked like a layered file. Start with single color until the basic trace makes sense.
The trace lands right on top of the original picture, and the two look the same. Drag the trace aside and delete the picture underneath, or Design Space will get both. Click the trace and read the status bar at the bottom: it should say Path, with a node count. If it says Image, you selected the original. Zoom in and delete any stray specks.
Both open in Design Space. Inkscape SVG keeps extra Inkscape settings; Plain SVG leaves them out and is the safer choice for a file you will share or sell. Name it something you will recognize, and save it where you can find it, like the desktop.
Design Space can turn a PNG into a cut image, but it cannot save an SVG file. Canva Pro can download a design as SVG, and online converters trace simple images too. Inkscape stays free and gives you the most control over the result.
Once the file is saved, the cut SVG files with Cricut tutorial picks up where this one ends: Attach, mats and the cut itself. New to the machine? Start with how to use a Cricut for beginners. A first traced design makes good homemade stickers.
From a shop we love: to compare your trace with a professionally built file, download HKC Market's free citrus cut file. It comes as SVG, PNG and DXF.
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Make an SVG file from any clip art for free: trace it in Inkscape, delete the original, save it and load it into Cricut Design Space to cut. An easy project: about 20 minutes. You need 5 things, including computer with Inkscape, Cricut Design Space and Cricut cutting machine. The 9 steps start with open Your Clip Art Image in Inkscape and embed the JPEG When Inkscape Asks How to Import It.
9 steps, about 8 minutes. Tap a picture to jump to that step. Your progress saves automatically.
Tick each step off as you go.
Start Inkscape and use File, then Open, to find your picture. Alisha opens a black and white ice cream cone saved as a JPEG from a clip art set she bought. Any JPEG or PNG with bold dark lines on a white background works. Pick one with no shading, since the trace only sees dark and light.
Keep your clip art in one folder. It makes this dialog much faster every time.
Inkscape pops up a small import box asking how to bring the picture in. Leave Embed selected and click OK. Embed tucks the picture inside the Inkscape file, so nothing breaks if the original moves. You will delete this picture after tracing anyway, so the other settings in the box do not matter.
Tick Don't ask again if the box gets in your way. You can change it in Preferences.
The picture often comes in bigger than the page. Hold Ctrl and drag a corner handle so it shrinks evenly, then drag the image inside the page outline. The page is not the cut size, so do not worry about exact measurements. You will size the design in Design Space before you cut.
Ctrl while dragging keeps the proportions locked, so the cone does not stretch.
With the picture selected, right-click it and pick Trace Bitmap. This is the tool that turns dots into outlines. In Inkscape 1.x you will find it under the Path menu instead, or press Shift+Alt+B. A Trace Bitmap panel opens with a small preview of the result, and it stays open while you try different settings.
Nothing happens to your picture until you click OK or Apply, so experiment freely.
Choose Brightness cutoff. Alisha unchecks Smooth and Stack scans, then clicks OK. Watch the preview: thin lines that vanish need a higher threshold, and black specks in the white need a lower one. Click OK when the preview looks like your picture with crisp, unbroken edges all the way round the cone.
The default threshold of 0.45 is a good start for most black line art.
The trace sits exactly on top of the picture, so it looks as if nothing changed. Drag the top copy to one side and you will see two cones. Click the original picture, the one on the bottom, and press Delete. Then drag the traced cone back onto the page.
Click the cone and check the status bar says Path. That is the vector you want.
Go to File, then Save As. Give the file a name you will recognize, choose the desktop or a cut files folder, and leave the type set to Inkscape SVG or pick Plain SVG. Click Save. That file is your finished SVG, ready for Cricut, Silhouette Designer Edition or any cutting program that reads SVG.
Plain SVG drops Inkscape's extra settings and is the better pick for files you share.
Open Design Space, click Upload, then Upload Image and Browse. Pick the SVG you saved. The preview shows the cone on a checkerboard, which means the background is already gone. Give it a name and click Save. Because it is an SVG, Design Space skips the cleanup steps a JPEG would need.
If the upload shows a solid block, you picked the original JPEG, not the SVG.
Select the upload and add it to the canvas. Newer Design Space calls the button Add to Canvas. The cone arrives as a single cut layer you can resize, recolor or add text to. Set the width you want, then cut it from vinyl or cardstock the same way as any store-bought SVG.
Cut a small test first. Fine traced lines can be too thin to weed at tiny sizes.
Keep going
How to Make an Egg Carton Butterfly Suncatcher
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The original picture is still underneath, or the trace filled in the shapes. Delete the original before you save, and check the status bar says Path. If inner shapes filled in, lower the brightness threshold and trace again.
The threshold is too low for light or thin lines. Raise the brightness cutoff a little and update the preview until every line shows. Very thin lines can also be too fine to cut, so thicken them in the original drawing.
Yes. Inkscape SVG and Plain SVG both upload as cut images. Plain SVG leaves out Inkscape's extra settings, so it is the safer choice for files you share or sell.
Design Space can turn a PNG or JPEG into a cut image for its own use, but it cannot save an SVG file. To get an SVG you can keep or share, trace the image in Inkscape or another vector program.
Only if you own the art or its license allows it. Tracing someone else's design does not make it yours. Trace your own drawings, or clip art whose license covers selling cut files.
How to Make an SVG File
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