How to use the Text to SVG Outline Tool
- Type your text in the Text box. Press Enter for a second line; Line height and the three Align buttons control how the lines stack.
- Choose a font from the fourteen open-license fonts, or drop your own TTF, OTF or WOFF file onto the box under the list. Your file is read in the browser and never uploaded.
- Set the look. Font size, Letter spacing (in thousandths of an em, the same unit Illustrator uses) and Font kerning change the shapes; Fill and Stroke change only how they’re painted. For a laser cut line, untick Fill and tick Stroke.
- Pick the Output and the size. One path is easiest to weld and scale, Per line keeps lines separate, Per letter lets you move or recolor letters later. Type a width under Fit to width and press Fit to scale the text to an exact size, then choose mm or inches in Write size in.
- Download SVG, or use Copy SVG code to paste into a web page and Copy path data for the bare
dattribute.
Why outlines beat live text in an SVG
An SVG can contain real text — a <text> element that says “Handmade” in Pacifico. It only looks right on a computer that has Pacifico installed. Open the file in Cricut Design Space, LightBurn, a vinyl cutter’s software or a client’s browser without that font and it silently falls back to something else. Cutting machines also can’t follow text at all; they need a path made of lines and curves.
Converting to outlines fixes both problems. Every glyph in a font is already a set of outlines drawn on a grid called the em square. Most of the fonts here use 1,000 units per em; Arvo and Stardos Stencil use 2,048, a common size for TrueType fonts, and Allerta Stencil uses 1,024. TrueType outlines are built from quadratic Bézier curves (the Q commands in the path data), while many OpenType CFF fonts use cubic curves (C), which is why path data from different fonts looks different even when the letters look alike.
To place a glyph at 120 px, the tool scales its outline by 120 ÷ units per em, moves it along by the glyph’s advance width plus any kerning and letter spacing, and writes the result as path data rounded to two decimals. Nothing about the letter shapes is approximated, so the curves are as smooth as the original font.
Font size is not letter height
The number in Font size is the height of the em square, not of the letters. Capitals usually take up around 70% of it, and the exact share varies by font. That matters when a sign or a decal has to be a precise height:
| Font | Capital height (share of font size) | Font size for 1 in capitals | Font size for 25 mm capitals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montserrat Bold | 0.700 | 137.1 px | 135.0 px |
| Bebas Neue | 0.700 | 137.1 px | 135.0 px |
| Playfair Display Bold | 0.708 | 135.6 px | 133.5 px |
| Allerta Stencil | 0.720 | 133.4 px | 131.3 px |
| Arvo Bold | 0.740 | 129.7 px | 127.6 px |
| Stardos Stencil Bold | 0.694 | 138.4 px | 136.2 px |
| Fredoka SemiBold | 0.690 | 139.1 px | 136.9 px |
The pixel sizes assume the CSS standard of 96 px per inch (about 3.78 px per millimeter), which is what the tool uses when it writes millimeters or inches into the file. If you only care about overall width, skip the table and use Fit to width — it scales the whole block to the size you type.
Choosing an output mode
One path merges every letter into a single compound shape. It’s the safest choice for Cricut and Silhouette: one object to size, one weld, and holes in letters like o and e stay holes because of how the path is filled.
Per line is handy for signs, where you might cut each line from a different vinyl color or space the lines differently after importing.
Per letter gives you one path per glyph, each tagged with the character it came from. Use it when you want to recolor individual letters, nudge one letter’s position, or animate letters on a web page.
Tips from practice
Weld script fonts before you cut. In Pacifico, Lobster and Dancing Script the connecting strokes overlap the next letter instead of joining it. A cutter follows every outline, so unwelded script cuts into separate letters with slashes through the joins.
Use a stencil font for anything with islands. The middles of O, A, B and R fall out of a cut stencil or a laser-cut sign. Stardos Stencil and Allerta Stencil already include the bridges that hold them in place.
Watch thin strokes at small sizes. The fine hairlines of Great Vibes and Playfair Display look elegant on screen but can tear when weeding small vinyl. If a letter’s thinnest part is under a millimeter at your final size, go bigger or switch to a heavier font.
Space script letters out a little for engraving. A letter spacing of +20 to +40 keeps neighboring letters from merging into a blob when a laser burns slightly wider than the line.
Settle the spacing first. If a logo needs hand-kerned pairs, try them in the Letter Spacing & Kerning Previewer and match the result here with Letter spacing before you outline, because outlines can’t be re-spaced as text. To see the result on a business card or sign, drop the SVG into the Logo Mockup Previewer.