Exporting and importing SVG files in Paint by Zaweba

SVG is the common language of vector graphics on the web and between design programs. If you draw a badge or trace a logo in Paint by Zaweba, sooner or later you will want it in a web page, a cutting machine or another editor, and SVG is how it gets there. Paint handles the format in both directions: File > Export and Paths to SVG write files, and opening an SVG lets you bring it in.

Knowing what crosses that bridge, and what stays behind, saves a lot of puzzled checking afterwards.

What goes into the file

Shape layers export as real vector shapes. Solid fills and gradient fills come across, as do strokes, dashed strokes and width profiles. Document paths, the ones saved with your document, export too, which is handy for sending a cut line or a clipping outline to another program.

Text is written as outlines. That means the letters look exactly right wherever the file is opened, even on a computer without the font, but the text is no longer editable as words in the other program. Keep your Paint document as the master if you might change the wording.

Pixel layers are optional. You can include them as embedded PNG images, which is useful when a design mixes a photo with vector shapes and you want the whole thing in one file.

What is left out

Layer Art effects, masks and blend modes are not written. SVG has its own ways of doing some of these things, but they do not match Paint's effects closely, so rather than producing something that looks different in every viewer, the export leaves them out. If your design depends on a drop shadow or a glow, either flatten that part to pixels and include pixel layers, or recreate the effect in the destination program.

A quick check before exporting is to hide the effects and masks in Paint and look at what is left. That is close to what the SVG will show.

Importing an SVG

When you open an SVG, Paint asks for a width. SVGs have no fixed pixel size, so this is where you decide how big the picture should be on the canvas. Then you choose how to bring it in: as pixels, or as editable shape layers.

Pixels give you a picture at exactly the width you chose, ready for painting over, filtering or placing in a photo. It is the right choice when the SVG is just an ingredient, such as an icon you want to drop onto a thumbnail.

Shape layers keep it vector. You can recolour parts, move pieces, round corners, combine shapes and export again. This is the right choice when you are going to edit the artwork itself.

A typical round trip

Trace a client's logo with Vectorise Bitmap, tidy it with the Shape Builder and Corner tool, set the brand colours, then export to SVG for their web designer. Later, open the same SVG as shape layers at a larger width to make a banner, and it stays perfectly sharp.

Things to watch

Very complex SVGs from other programs may use features Paint does not read, so check the import against the original. If a shape looks wrong, importing as pixels at a large width is a reliable fallback. On export, convert any text you have warped or put on a path to shapes first if it looks off in the other program, and keep strokes simple when the file is going to a cutter, which usually follows the path rather than the stroke width.

The SVG support in Paint by Zaweba is aimed at the common jobs, getting clean shapes out for the web and print and bringing icons and artwork in, and it handles those well.