Cricut Space Design FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

Cricut Design Space is the online platform that Cricut designed to be used with their newer machines.

It’s not software – you download a plugin on your computer (or the app on your table/phone), and then you are able to design to your heart’s content.

You can use designs and images that are already uploaded into Design Space, or you can upload your own!

Cricut Design Space works with the following machines:
Cricut Maker (Buy on Cricut / Amazon)
Cricut Explore Air 2 (Buy on Cricut / Amazon)
Cricut Explore Air (Buy on Cricut / Amazon)
Cricut Explore One (Buy on Cricut / Amazon)

Cricut Design Space is 100% free. You do need to create an account, but if you don’t want to, you don’t have to spend a penny.

While they have some free images and fonts built into the program, there are ones that you can pay money for. You can also sign up for a Cricut Access Plan, which will give you access to thousands of images and fonts – you can learn more about Cricut Access here.

However, you can install your own fonts onto your computer and upload images to Design Space (that you’ve created, found for free, or purchased on your own).

Here are a few places I really like that offer free and paid SVG files:

LoveSVG.com
SoFontsy.com

Cricut Design Space is an online program, so you don’t download it onto your computer.

However, you will need to download some plugins, which should auto popup and prompt you to download when you go through the initial process.

Here are some instructions on how to install Design Space –
https://help.cricut.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009556033-System-Requirements-Design-Space

If you are wanting to download Cricut Design Space onto your iPhone or iPad, then you will just need to go to the Apple App Store, search for “Design Space”, and it should be the first option to pop up. Download it like you normally would.

Here is what you should look for in the App Store:

Any project that you create in Design Space can be saved to the Cloud. You just need to make sure you save your project – that button is in the top right hand corner.

This allows you to view your project on any device where you are logged in.

However, if you are working on an iPhone or an iPad, you have the option to save it just to your device. I would usually always suggest saving it to the Cloud though!

You can use Design Space on Mac computers, PC computers, and iOS devices.

Your computer must be running a Windows or Mac operating system, and for that reason, Google Chromebooks CANNOT be used, as they run on a Google OS.

As far as the system requirements, visit this page for the specifics on that:

https://help.cricut.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009556033-System-Requirements-Design-Space

Here are a few computers to consider (I have linked to Best Buy
—MacBook Pro 13 (this is what I have. I always buy my Macs from Best Buy).
—iPad Pro with Apple Pencil – I would suggest getting the largest screen (11″) if you can
—ASUS VivoBook

While Cricut has had a beta version of an app for Android phones and tablets available, it’s super glitchy.

Sometimes when you go to cut your design, it will stop you before you at the mat preview page and say you need to pay.

You may have accidentally added an image that requires payment – you can go back to your canvas and check each image to see if there is a dollar sign next to it (or see if the font you selected has a dollar sign. Keep in mind that even if you have Cricut Access, you don’t have access to ALL the images and fonts).

If you selected a project from Design Space, it may have included an image or font that is paid. When you look at the project instructions, it should tell you if it is free or not.

No, it cannot.

I see this question all the time in Design Space, and it can be so frustrating! Most often, Design Space is down when they are making updates.

Sometimes they will send out an email when they expect an outage, but I don’t always see this.

If it’s down, I would suggest not contacting their customer support and just be patient. You can also try another browser or clear your browser cache, just to make sure it’s not an issue on your end.

Slicing is one of my favorite features in Cricut Design Space! I love cutting out fonts and images in other designs.

But sometimes it won’t work. If you are finding this to be a problem, here are a few ideas:

–Make sure the image/font you are cutting out of (so that’s on top of another image) is completely inside the other image. If a piece of it is sticking out, it won’t slice.
–Make sure everything is selected.
–Keep in mind that when you slice it, you will have two layers to remove from the image – the original image/font that you sliced, as well as the sliced

I won’t dive too much into Print and Cut, as it is a beast on it’s own.

However, the biggest reason why I see people having trouble with Print and Cut is that they didn’t flatten their images! Before you go to print and cut, make sure you select all and press flatten.

Most often you will get an error or a white screen with Design Space if you don’t have the most recently updated plugin.

If you get a blank page, try refreshing the page to see if the plugin update appears. DO NOT move away from this page when it’s updating, or it will turn white.

Yep – Cricut Access is not required to use Design Space. It is a completely free program to use.

There’s nothing more frustrating than logging into Design Space and having it be slower than a snail.

If this is the case, first make sure you have the latest plugin installed on your browser. You should be prompted to do this when you go to Design.Cricut.com, and it will typically start updating on its own. Here’s the screen you’ll typically encounter:




Another common reason for Design Space being slow is if your image is too large. Occasionally, you may accidentally (or purposely) size an image to be extremely large. This will definitely slow down your Design Space. Make sure that you don’t have anything sized larger than your largest mat.

I think the biggest culprit just comes down to people’s computers. Here are a few things to check:

–Make sure your computer and browser are completely up to date
–Delete any unnecessary files from your computer (the downloads folder can get bulky fast!)
–Don’t have too many tabs open in your browser
–Install anti-spyware, virus, and malware software on your computer. Nothing makes a computer slower than a good ol’ fashioned virus! I am a big fan of Norton Anti-Virus.

While you can use it with most of the major browsers, Cricut does suggest not using Internet Explorer.

Instead, you should use a browser like Google Chrome (my personal favorite), Mozilla Firefox, or Safari.