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Home/Inkscape SVG for Cricut and lasers: exact size, scale and outlined text

Inkscape SVG for Cricut and lasers: exact size, scale and outlined text

Check File > Document Properties: a file sized in millimeters opens at its real size, with a scale of 1 when one drawing unit is one millimeter. Turn text into shapes with Path > Object to Path, join touching script letters with Path > Union, and keep the editable original.

Document Properties: the page in millimeters, and a scale of 1 when one unit of the drawing is one millimeter.

Check the size and the scale

Document Properties shows the page’s width and height, which is the size written in the file. The scale says how many of the drawing’s own units make one display unit: with millimeters chosen as the display unit, a scale of 1 means a shape 10 units wide is 10 mm wide.

A file with no real-world size is read at 96 pixels to the inch, the CSS rule Inkscape follows; Inkscape 0.91 and older used 90. Illustrator counts 72 to the inch, so an Illustrator file that carries no size opens here at three quarters of it.

A worked example

Open our rounded rectangle pantry label. Its file says width="76mm" height="42mm" viewBox="0 0 76 42", so Document Properties shows a 76 × 42 mm page and, with mm as the display unit, a scale of 1. Type your wording with the Text tool, convert it with Path > Object to Path and save a copy: the copy keeps the 76 × 42 mm page, and programs that read an SVG’s units place it at that size.

Turn text into shapes

  1. Save the file with its live text first; outlined letters can’t be edited as words.
  2. Select the text and choose Path > Object to Path (Ctrl+Shift+C). Each letter becomes a shape, its holes included.
  3. For a script font whose letters touch, ungroup the letters (Ctrl+Shift+G), select them and choose Path > Union (Ctrl++), so they cut as one piece instead of overlapping outlines.
  4. Zoom in on letters with holes, such as A, B, O and e, and check the holes are still open.

Plan an outlined-text export →

Save the copy for your cutter

File > Save As offers Inkscape SVG, which keeps Inkscape’s own editing information, and Plain SVG, which leaves it out. Glowforge’s Inkscape tutorial saves its file as Plain SVG. Keep the copy with live text as your master and send the outlined copy.

To change the size, select everything, lock the width and height together in the toolbar and type the new width; or write an exact size into the file with our size tool, which changes the width and height without moving anything in the drawing.

Write an exact size into the SVG →

Check for live text and the size before you upload →

The 76 × 42 mm label from the example →

From the maker’s documentation: Inkscape: objects to paths, Inkscape: units in Inkscape, Inkscape: keyboard and mouse reference, Glowforge: make a gift tag using Inkscape.