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Convert SVG text to outlines in Inkscape, Illustrator or Affinity

Cutting software needs letters as shapes, not as text in a font. Keep an editable copy, then convert: Path > Object to Path in Inkscape, Type > Create Outlines in Illustrator, Layer > Convert to Curves in Affinity Designer. After that the file no longer needs the font, Design Space and LightBurn can read it, and script letters can be welded into one piece.

Live text needs its font; converted to outlines, each letter is a shape with points of its own.

What happens to live text

Design Space counts live text among the items it cannot upload. LightBurn cannot import embedded fonts. A computer without your font swaps in another one, so the word changes shape and size. Outlined letters avoid all three.

Convert it, program by program

ProgramMenuShortcut on Windows
InkscapePath > Object to PathShift+Ctrl+C
Adobe IllustratorType > Create OutlinesShift+Ctrl+O
Affinity DesignerLayer > Convert to CurvesCtrl+Enter

Keep the editable copy

  1. Save the file with its live text under one name, so you can change the wording later.
  2. Save a copy under a second name and select the text in it.
  3. Convert it with the menu above, then save that copy as SVG.
  4. Check the outlined copy: zoom in on the letters and on the holes in A, B, O and R.
  5. For script lettering, weld the letters into one piece after upload, so the joins cut as one outline.

A worked example

Our Trick or Treat word art is already outlined: the whole phrase is 2 shapes holding 18 outlines, with the holes in the letters as outlines of their own. It needs no font and uploads as it is. Words you type yourself in our monogram maker and label tool come out the same way, as outlines.

See the Trick or Treat word art →

Make outlined initials →

Check what changed

The SVG checker lists live text. If it finds none, the file has no live text left; it does not tell you whether the letters are joined for a stencil, where the centers of A, B, O and R need a bridge to stay in place.

Check for live text →

Text vanished after upload →

From the maker’s documentation: Inkscape: objects to paths, Cricut: unsupported image items, LightBurn: file management, Cricut: Combine, Slice and Weld.