Basics5 min readUpdated
An SVG is a set of instructions for drawing shapes — "start here, curve to there, close the path" — rather than a grid of coloured dots. That difference is the entire reason cutting machines want one: a blade follows a path, and a path is exactly what an SVG contains.
A PNG or JPEG is a grid of pixels. Scale it up and the grid stretches, producing soft or blocky edges. An SVG stores geometry, so it is recomputed at whatever size you ask for and stays exact — a 2-inch star and a 20-inch star are the same file.
A cutting machine needs a path to follow. Given a PNG it must guess where the edges are, which is what "auto-trace" does, and guessing produces thousands of unnecessary nodes that make the blade stutter.
Zoom in on a curve. A well-drawn vector has a handful of smooth control points; a traced file has a dense scatter of them, and the curve looks faintly polygonal. That density is what makes a cut ragged on vinyl and torn on cardstock.
Then check whether the shapes are actually closed. An open path has no inside, so the machine cannot decide what to cut away and will often skip it entirely.
Machines cut the boundary of filled shapes. A stroke — an outline drawn along a path — is a rendering instruction with no area, and most machine software ignores it or cuts down its centre unpredictably.
If you want a thin outline to cut, it must be a closed shape with a fill: an offset, not a stroke. This one distinction explains most "it imported but nothing cut" reports.
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