EveryCutFileWhich file to upload
A picture saved inside an SVG is still a picture: it engraves, and nothing cuts around it.
| File | What the Glowforge app does with it | Who can upload it |
|---|---|---|
| SVG | Cut, score and engrave | Every account |
| Cut, score and engrave | Every account | |
| JPG, PNG | Engrave only: a picture has no outline to cut | Every account |
| DXF | Vector outlines, like an SVG | Glowforge Premium members |
How the app reads your file
Glowforge’s own Inkscape tutorial sets out the rule: a stroke, an outline with no fill, becomes a cut; a fill becomes an engrave; and each color is a separate step with its own settings. You can then change a step, a cut to a score for example.
Order matters too. Glowforge advises engraving and scoring before cutting, and cutting inner holes before the outer edge, because a piece that has been cut can shift or curl. Drag the steps on the left into that order.
A worked example
Our friendly ghost has four colors, a lilac shadow, the cream ghost, pink cheeks and the dark face, and a cut size of 90 × 86 mm. All four are filled shapes, so the app shows four engrave steps. For a wooden ghost, set the cream ghost to Cut, leave the face and cheeks as engraves, Ignore the shadow, and put the engraves first and the cut last. It fits either machine with room to spare: an Aura prints up to 12 × 12 in, a Performance Series Glowforge up to 11 × 19.5 in.
If the size is wrong
The app takes the size from the file. A file that gives its width and height in inches or millimeters, like every file here, arrives at that size. A file sized only in pixels leaves the app to work the size out, and one exported from Adobe Illustrator with Responsive ticked carries no size at all; that is a common reason for a design arriving at three quarters of its size. Save a copy with its real size and upload it again. Glowforge’s Inkscape tutorial sets the size in inches and saves the file as Plain SVG.
Upload a design
- Sign in to the Glowforge app at app.glowforge.com.
- Choose Create a new design, then Upload a file.
- Choose the single design’s SVG, not the whole pack sheet.
- Set each step to Cut, Score, Engrave or Ignore, drag the steps into order, and check the size before you print.
From the maker’s documentation: Glowforge: upload a design, Glowforge: make a gift tag using Inkscape, Glowforge: setting the order of your print steps, Glowforge: printable area.