Export for a Cricut
Two exports, for the two things a Cricut does. Print Then Cut gives you a 300 DPI PNG with a see-through background: you print it, the machine cuts around it. Cut file gives you an SVG of the outlines for the machine to cut straight from vinyl or card.
Which one you want
| Print Then Cut | A 300 DPI PNG with a transparent background. Anything can be printed this way — photographs, gradients, fine detail — because the printer does the picture and the machine only follows the edge. This is what stickers and cupcake toppers are. |
|---|---|
| Cut file | An SVG the machine cuts the shapes from. Every font is turned into outlines first, because Design Space does not have your fonts. This is what vinyl lettering and card shapes are. |
Only outlines can be cut
A cutting machine follows a path. A photograph has no path, and neither does a gradient or anything clipped to a shape — so those cannot go in a cut file. The export tells you what it found rather than quietly dropping it.
If the design has pictures in it, Print Then Cut is the answer: it keeps every pixel and the machine cuts the outside edge.
Fonts become outlines
Design Space cannot use a font it does not have installed, and most fonts are not licensed to be handed around. Converting text to outlines before export solves both: the letters arrive as shapes with the right form, and nothing has to travel with them.
It does mean the text is no longer text. Get the wording right before you export, because it cannot be retyped on the other side.
What this is not
BoboCreate does not replace Cricut Design Space and does not talk to the machine. It prepares the file; Design Space sends it to cut. The workflow is design here, export, then import into Design Space as you would any other PNG or SVG.
Cricut and Design Space are trademarks of Cricut, Inc. BoboCreate is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cricut, Inc.