How to change an SVG's colour in Cricut Design Space

To change the colour of an uploaded SVG in Cricut Design Space, select the layer you want to change, then choose the colour swatch beside the Operation menu in the bar above the canvas and pick a colour. In a design with several layers, select one layer in the Layers panel first, or the change may apply to every layer selected. The colour is more than decoration: Design Space puts each colour on its own mat, so it decides which pieces are cut from which sheet.

On a Windows or Mac computer

1. Put the SVG on the canvas. Uploading an SVG to Cricut Design Space has the steps.
2. In the Layers panel, select the single layer to recolour. A design with several layers arrives as one group: select a layer inside it, or choose Ungroup first.
3. In the bar above the canvas, choose the small square swatch next to the Operation menu. It is a solid square when the layer is set to cut.
4. Pick one of the basic colours. For any other colour, choose Advanced, or type a hex code in the box at the bottom of the picker.

On a phone or tablet

Select the layer, open Edit in the toolbar and choose Operation. The same menu that sets cut, draw or score also sets the layer’s colour.

What the colour does

A Cricut cuts. It does not colour anything, so the colour on screen stands for the sheet of vinyl, iron-on or card that a piece will be cut from. When you go on to make the project, Design Space sorts the pieces onto mats by operation and by colour:

• Layers with the same colour go on the same mat and are cut from one sheet.
• Layers with different colours go on different mats, one after another, and the software prompts for each.

So set each layer to the colour of the material in your hand, or at least give every material a colour of its own. The exact shade is only for your eye.

What colour should an SVG be before uploading?

Any colours will do, provided each part that will be cut from a different material has a different flat fill. Design Space makes a layer of each path in an SVG and sorts the layers onto mats by colour. A file whose shapes are all one path arrives as a single layer; a one-colour file with several paths arrives as several layers of the same colour.

Cricut’s help pages list what stops this working. Shapes filled with gradients or patterns cannot be sorted by colour, and Design Space reports unsupported items, as it does for pictures placed inside the SVG. The fix is in the file: give every shape one flat colour before uploading. How to edit an SVG file shows how to change fills in the code or in Inkscape.

Using fewer colours: Color Sync

A design may arrive with more colours than you have materials, such as two nearly identical reds. The Color Sync panel lists the layers by colour. Drag a layer onto another colour there and it takes that colour, which puts the two on one mat. The panel shows layers set to cut only, not those set to draw, score or print.

Cutting a design in two or more colours

1. Upload a layered SVG, one with a separate colour for each part. The layered files in the library are made this way.
2. Set each layer’s colour to match a material.
3. If the pieces of one colour must keep their spacing, select them and choose Attach. Attach pieces of the same colour only: layers of different colours that are attached to each other are placed on one mat together.
4. Choose Make. Check the mats in the preview, one for each colour, then load each material as Design Space asks for it.
5. Stack the cut layers, bottom first.

For iron-on, remember to mirror the mats.

Splitting a one-colour SVG into two colours

A single-layer design has no parts to recolour separately. If its pieces are separate outlines, they can be divided in Design Space:

1. Select the layer and choose Duplicate to make a second copy. Where the copy sits on the canvas does not matter for cutting.
2. On the first copy, use Contour to hide the cut lines that belong to the second colour.
3. On the second copy, use Contour to hide all the others.
4. Give each copy its own colour.

Where the two colours belong to one joined outline, Contour cannot separate them. Use Slice with a shape drawn over the part to split off, or divide the design in a vector editor: how to make a layered SVG covers that.

Printing the colours instead

To keep a design’s colours as printed ink, change its Operation to Print Then Cut. The printer then prints it and the machine cuts round the outside. The swatch for a Print Then Cut layer offers the original artwork, one flat colour or a pattern. Flatten merges several layers into a single printable image.

Common problems

What you see	Cause	Fix
The whole design changes colour	The group or several layers were selected	Select one layer in the Layers panel, or Ungroup first
The swatch offers pens or print fills, not material colours	The layer’s Operation is a draw type or Print Then Cut	Set its Operation to a cut type
Two layers of one colour land on different mats	Their colours differ slightly, or their operations differ	Match the colours with Color Sync, and set both to the same Operation
Different colours land on one mat	The layers are attached to each other	Detach, then attach each colour separately
The SVG arrives as one layer	All its shapes are one path	Split it with Contour or Slice, or use a layered file
The upload is refused	Gradients, patterns or pictures in the file	Use flat colours: see the upload guide
A layer is missing from Color Sync	It is set to draw, score or print	Color Sync lists cut layers only

Questions

Does the colour have to match my vinyl exactly? No. It only has to tell the layers apart, though matching it helps when checking the design on screen.

Is the colour change saved in the SVG file? No. It is kept in the Design Space project. The file on the computer is unchanged.

Can the colours be changed before uploading? Yes, by editing the fills in the file. That is the better route when the same file will be used many times.