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SVG text vanished after import

Letters vanish when the SVG still holds live text: Design Space does not accept editable text in an uploaded SVG, and other programs swap or drop a font they do not have. Convert the text to outlines in the original file (Create Outlines, Convert to Curves, or Object to Path in Inkscape) and import the new copy.

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Live text depends on a font. Converted to a path, each letter is a shape that opens the same everywhere.

Read what you see

The checker shows whether the file still contains text: an outlined letter is a path, live text is a text element.

What you seeLikely causeWhat to do
The upload warns about unsupported items and the words are missingLive, editable text. Design Space needs text converted into shapes before uploadOutline the text in the original and export again
The words are there in a different fontThe program does not have the font, so it substituted oneOutline the text, or install the font and open the original
Text is missing in LightBurnLightBurn cannot import embedded fontsOutline the text before you export
Letters arrive but the holes in A, O and e cut as solid piecesEach letter's inner shapes came apart from its outer shapeSelect the letter and its inner shapes and combine them (Ctrl+K in Inkscape)

A worked example

Our Happy Hanukkah word art is three paths and no text at all: Happy, HANUKKAH and the two stars are already shapes, so the checker finds no text element and every program draws the letters the same. A design typed in a font and saved without outlining arrives as a text element instead, and Design Space reports it as an unsupported item.

Outline the text in your design program

  1. Open the original file on a computer that has the font, and save a copy before you change it.
  2. Select the text. In Inkscape choose Path > Object to Path (Ctrl+Shift+C); in Adobe Illustrator, Create Outlines; in CorelDRAW, Convert to Curves.
  3. Zoom in and check the letters, including the holes in A, B, O and e, then export the copy as an SVG.
  4. Import the new copy. Keep the original with live text for later edits.

Why outlining works

A text element stores letters and a font name; the program that opens it has to draw them with that font. A path stores the shape of each letter itself, so nothing depends on fonts. Every word design on this site is outlined, and the label customizer and monogram maker download outlined letters too.

From the maker’s documentation: Cricut: unsupported image items, LightBurn: file management, Inkscape: keyboard and mouse reference.