Decaly

PNG to SVG for Cricut: turn a PNG into cut layers

Design Space will take a PNG, but it treats it as one picture. If you want each colour cut from its own vinyl, the PNG has to become an SVG with one layer per colour first.

Written by the developer of Decaly · Published 21 October 2026

Short answer

Upload a PNG to Cricut Design Space and it comes in as a single image: you can erase the background and cut its outline, or print it and cut around it, but its colours don’t become separate layers. To cut each colour from its own vinyl, convert the PNG to SVG by tracing it into colour layers, then upload the SVG. Design Space keeps each colour group as a layer you can assign to a mat.

Get Decaly Traces a picture into cut layers on your Android phone. Tracing is free, with no account.

Why the PNG comes in as one layer

A PNG is pixels. When Design Space uploads it, it can find where the picture is and where the background is, which gives one outline: the shape of the whole design. It doesn’t know that the navy letters and the orange letters should be cut from different vinyl. An SVG made of traced paths does carry that information: every colour is its own set of shapes, filled with its colour, grouped together.

That is the whole job of a “PNG to SVG converter” for a Cricut: not changing the file extension, but splitting the colours into shapes.

Converting a PNG to SVG on your phone

  1. Open the PNG in Decaly with Open your picture, or share it to Decaly from wherever you found it. If the PNG has a transparent background, it is placed on white.
  2. Set Colours to cut to the number of vinyl colours you want. Each tile below the picture shows one layer and how many pieces it has.
  3. Tap a tile’s Recolour to set the colour to the vinyl you’ll use, so the file previews correctly in Design Space.
  4. Keep Cutting with on Cricut Design Space and set the Cut size. Decaly writes the size into the SVG in inches.
  5. Tap Save cut file. Decaly saves one .svg with every layer, grouped by colour (saving is part of Decaly Pro).

Then in Design Space: Upload → choose the SVG. Each colour arrives as its own layer; check the size on the canvas before you make it.

Stacked or side by side

Before saving, choose how the layers relate. Stacked cuts the bottom colour whole and puts the others on top, the usual choice for layered HTV and adhesive vinyl. Side by side cuts each colour only where it shows, so pieces meet edge to edge and nothing is doubled. There is more on that choice in how to layer vinyl without overlapping.

When a PNG doesn’t trace well

  • It is small. A PNG saved from a search result is often a thumbnail. Under 300 pixels on its long side Decaly refuses it, because the curves would cut as steps; about 600 pixels and up traces smoothly. More on low-resolution pictures.
  • It has shading. Gradients and soft shadows become bands of flat colour. Fewer colours and Simple detail usually give a cleaner cut.
  • It came out as one dark shape. That is usually a one-colour trace; here is why and how to fix it.

If you only need one colour

For a single-colour decal you may not need an SVG at all: Design Space can cut the outline of a PNG once the background is erased. The SVG matters when there are two or more colours, or when the edges need to be smoother than the PNG’s pixels.

Decaly: image to SVG, in layers you can cut

Open a picture on your Android phone and watch it trace into colour layers, free. Decaly Pro saves it as an SVG for Cricut Design Space, one DXF per layer for Silhouette Studio, or a PNG for Print Then Cut.

Get Decaly on Google Play