How to edit an SVG in Cricut Design Space

Yes, an SVG can be edited in Cricut Design Space once it is uploaded and on the canvas. Choose Ungroup first, so that each layer can be selected alone. Then a layer can be resized, rotated, flipped, recoloured, hidden or deleted. Contour hides single cut lines inside a layer, Slice cuts one shape out of another, and Unite or Weld joins shapes. Three things cannot be done there: moving the single points of a shape, retyping words that are part of the SVG, and saving the result as a new SVG file.

What can and cannot be changed

The change	In Design Space?	How
Separate the parts	Yes	Ungroup
Size, rotation, position	Yes	The Size, Rotate and Position boxes above the canvas
Mirror	Yes	Flip
Colour	Yes	The swatch beside Operation
Remove a whole layer	Yes	Hide or delete it in the Layers panel
Remove one cut line inside a layer	Yes	Contour
Cut a shape out of another	Yes	Slice, or Combine and Subtract
Join overlapping shapes	Yes	Combine and Unite, or Weld
Turn a cut line into a drawn or scored line	Yes	Operation
Reshape a curve or move one point	No	Use a vector editor before uploading
Retype words that came in the SVG	No	Hide the old words and add new text
Save the edited design as an SVG	No	The edits stay in the Design Space project

The steps below use the names Cricut’s help pages give for Design Space on a Windows or Mac computer. In the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, Ungroup, Contour, Slice and Combine are in the Actions menu at the bottom of the screen.

Start by ungrouping

An SVG with several layers arrives as one grouped image, so a click selects all of it. Select it and choose Ungroup at the top of the Layers panel. Each layer can then be clicked, on the canvas or in the Layers panel, and changed without the others.

Design Space generally makes a layer of each separate shape in the file. If a design that looks as if it has several parts shows only one layer, the parts were saved as one path, and Contour is the tool for working inside it.

Resize, rotate and flip

Select a layer, or the whole design, and type a width or height in the Size boxes in the bar above the canvas. While the lock is closed the other dimension follows, so the proportions are kept. Rotate takes an angle in degrees. Flip mirrors the selection left to right or top to bottom.

Change a colour

Select one layer and choose the colour swatch beside the Operation menu. The colour stands for the material: layers of the same colour are sent to the same mat. Changing an SVG’s colour in Design Space covers this and the Color Sync panel.

Remove part of a design

A whole layer. Select it and delete it, or choose the eye icon beside it in the Layers panel to hide it. Hidden layers are not cut, and can be shown again later.

One cut line inside a layer. Use Contour:

Ungroup the design if it has more than one layer.
Select the single layer and choose Contour in the Layers panel.
A window shows every cut line in the layer. Choose the lines to hide, either on the picture or in the list beside it. Hidden lines turn a lighter shade.
Close the window. The hidden lines are no longer part of the image and will not be cut.

Nothing is destroyed: open Contour again and choose a hidden line to bring it back. Typical uses are removing a small hole, a stray speck, or the inside of a letter.

A piece cut away with another shape. Place a shape, such as a square from Shapes, over the part to remove. Select both layers and choose Slice at the bottom of the Layers panel. The overlap becomes separate pieces that can be deleted. Slice works only when exactly two layers are selected. To cut several shapes out of one at once, choose Combine, then Subtract, which removes the upper shapes from the bottom one.

Join shapes

Select two or more overlapping layers and choose Combine.

Tool	Result	Can it be undone later?
Unite	One outline around all the shapes	Yes. The shapes stay editable inside the group, and Combine offers an undo for it
Weld	One outline around all the shapes	Only with Undo, before the project is saved and closed

Unite is the safer choice. Welded shapes take one colour and become a single layer.

Change the words in an SVG

Lettering in an uploaded SVG is not text. Design Space reports “unsupported items” for an SVG that holds editable text, so a file made for cutting has its letters converted to shapes, and shapes cannot be retyped. To change the wording:

Remove the old words. If they are a layer of their own, delete or hide it. If they share a layer with other artwork, hide each letter with Contour.
Choose Text in the panel on the left and type the new words.
Pick a font close to the original from the font menu, then size and place the words.
If the words must keep their place in relation to the rest, select them with the design and choose Attach.

Text added this way stays editable in Design Space: double-click it to change it again.

Change how a layer is made

Every shape in an SVG arrives set to cut. Select a layer and open Operation to change it to a drawn line for a pen, a score line, or another operation the machine supports. A drawn or scored layer has to be attached to the cut layer it belongs on: select both and choose Attach. That tells the machine which piece to draw or score.

Where the edits are kept

Choose Save to keep the edited design as a project in your Cricut account. The original SVG file on the computer is not changed, and the uploaded image in your library stays as it was.

For changes Design Space cannot make, edit the file itself and upload it again. How to edit an SVG file shows how in Inkscape and in the code. Colours and size can also be changed before uploading with the change SVG colours and resize SVG pages.

Why an SVG will not edit

What you see	Cause	Fix
Everything moves and resizes together	The design is grouped	Ungroup
Contour cannot be chosen	A group or several layers are selected	Ungroup, then select one layer
Slice cannot be chosen	More or fewer than two layers are selected	Select exactly two. Hide or ungroup the others
The words cannot be retyped	They are shapes, not text	Hide them and add new text
One point of a shape will not move	Design Space has no tool for editing points	Reshape it in a vector editor and upload again
Colours changed after joining shapes	Weld makes one layer in one colour	Set the colour again. Unite changes it too
A weld cannot be reversed	Weld is permanent once the project is saved and closed	Use Unite next time, or upload the SVG again
Pieces move apart on the mat	Design Space packs pieces to save material	Select them and choose Attach
The file brings up “unsupported items”	It holds text, pictures, clipping paths or gradient fills	See uploading an SVG to Cricut Design Space

Questions

Do the edits change the SVG file? No. They are stored in the project. To use the edited design elsewhere, the file has to be edited in a vector editor.

Does editing need Cricut Access? The tools on this page are part of Design Space itself. Some fonts and images in the library are sold or need a subscription, and Cricut marks those.

Can a PNG or JPG be edited the same way? A picture normally uploads as a single layer, so there are no separate parts to work on. Trace it into an SVG first: see how to convert a picture to SVG.