On Tuesday, September 29, Design Space for Web will no longer be available. Download the all-new Design Space for Desktop app for your Mac or Windows computer right now. We highly recommend you download Design Space for Desktop as the old web version will soon be obsolete. Plus, you’ll love the ability to design and. Pick a project, and the machine cuts all the pieces you need. Easy-to-learn Design Space® software. Fully loaded with advanced features including Offline Mode, Print Then Cut, and SnapMat ™. For iOS, Android ™, Windows ®, and Mac ®.
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Meet the Cricut Explore family.
Big value, WOW-worthy results. With the flexibility to cut a wide range of craft materials and the precision to deliver exactly what you need, the best-selling Cricut Explore line of smart cutting machines make DIY easy, fun, and – dare we say – amazing.
So many materials.
Even more possibilities.
Cricut Explore machines cut a hundred different materials – everything from the most popular craft materials like cardstock, vinyl, and iron-on to specialty materials like glittery paper, polished foils, and bonded fabric.
CuttingCut the most intricate shapes to perfection.
![Cricut explore air 2 design space download Cricut explore air 2 design space download](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xQ3-PNG8miE/maxresdefault.jpg)
Versatile fine-point blades enable Cricut machines to cut light- to medium-weight materials quickly and accurately, down to details smaller than a nail decal. And with Cut Smart™ technology, you’ll get the same results cut after cut.
ScoringMake your paper
projects pop.
Make a beautiful, handcrafted card with a complementary envelope in minutes. Scoring Stylus1 makes easy-to-fold creases in the most popular paper materials with Cricut machines.
WritingAdd a note.
Make a statement.
Cricut machines handle pens like your very own calligrapher, embellishing projects with beautiful text and delicately drawn shapes. With a variety of styles and thicknesses, Cricut pens simply make your projects stand out.
FoilingAdd shine to your projects.
Elevate your craft with stunning foil effects. Foil Transfer Tool makes it easy to embellish invitations, gift boxes, cards & more with polished, professional results that add amazing glimmer and gleam.
Creative happiness in every hue.
Creativity comes in many colors. But no matter which hue says you, Cricut Explore machines feature a big dial for selecting materials, convenient cubbies for storing your gear, and cutting performance that will blow your socks off.
Feature summaryThe perfect entry point to the world of precision crafting.
- Cuts 100 different materials. Everything from cardstock, vinyl, and iron-on to specialty materials like glitter paper, cork, and bonded fabric.
- Up to 2X faster cutting and writing2. Select Fast Mode when you need to make every second count. Switch to Precision Mode to make the most intricate cuts perfectly.
- Double tool holder3. Keeps your blade and pen always at hand. Seamlessly shift between cutting a shape and embellishing it with a written note.
- Wireless convenience3. Connects to your computer or mobile device via Bluetooth® technology, so you can control your Cricut machine without wires.
- Easy-to-learn Design Space® software. For iOS and Android™ devices, and Windows® and Mac® computers.
- Offline Mode. Download images and projects to take with you and use when you’re offline. Available with the Cricut iOS app.
- Flexibility to upload your own designs. Use your own images and fonts for free in a variety of standard file formats.
- 50 ready-to-make projects. Includes a variety of projects that demonstrate everything Cricut Explore machines can do.
- Compatible with Cricut cartridges4. Link the cartridges you already own to your Cricut ID to access your collections instantly.
- Easy enough for anyone to learn
- Up to 2X faster cutting and writing2
- Bluetooth® wireless technology
- Double tool holder3
- Design Space software for iOS, Android™, Windows®, and Mac®
- Upload your own images and fonts for free
- Compatible with Cricut cartridges4
1 Sold separately.
2 Fast Mode available on Cricut Explore Air 2. Use with popular crafting materials including vinyl, iron-on, and cardstock.
3 Available on Cricut Explore Air/Air 2 models.
4 For users of classic Cricut machines who own cartridges.
2 Fast Mode available on Cricut Explore Air 2. Use with popular crafting materials including vinyl, iron-on, and cardstock.
3 Available on Cricut Explore Air/Air 2 models.
4 For users of classic Cricut machines who own cartridges.
Compare machines.
Cricut Explore Air® 2 Our most popular machine | ||
---|---|---|
Perfect for | Quick, everyday, fun projects | Pro-level DIY performance & versatility |
Max material width | 12 in | |
Max material length | 20 ft | 2 ft |
Material compatibility | 100+ materials | |
Tools / Capabilities | 2 (for cutting & writing) | 11+ (for cutting, writing, scoring, debossing, engraving & more) |
Commercial-grade performance | NO | |
Works with Smart Materials for long, continuous cuts without a cutting mat | YES | NO |
Works with Card Mat for quick custom cards | NO | |
Works with home printer to print, then cut out printed image perfectly | NO | YES |
Free design app for iOS, Android™ Windows®, and Mac® | YES | |
Connectivity | Bluetooth® | Bluetooth®, USB |
$179.99 | $249.99 | $399.99 |
How does Cricut work?
Glad you asked.
See the ExperienceJul 06., 2018 / Cricut, Cutter Software, Pazzles, Popup Cards, Scan N Cut, Silhouette Cameo3
What is the best design software for creating SVG cutting files? There are a number of design software choices available. Learn which is the best for you. The most important factor in your design software choice is that it works with your cutter. The design software does not have to have drivers to cut directly to your cutter. But the design software does need to have options to export designs that will work with your cutter. So the cutter you are using, and its software requirements will be a huge factor for you in your design software choice.
Cutter Software
Cricut Design Space
Does macos catalina work on macbook air. Cricut Design Space
Cutters are usually shipped with software that works with the machine. But not all software is created equally. Some machines come only with the drivers necessary to make the machine work. This is true with many professional vinyl cutting machines. Other cutters come with some very basic free design software, such as Cricut Explore and Cricut Maker. Software required to work with these Cricut machines is Cricut Design Space. Design Space allows you to save your designs on their Cloud, but you cannot save them to your computer or export then for use with other cutters.
You may be satisfied with cutter software that allows you to use only designs provided by the cutter distributor for awhile. But eventually you will want to spread your creative wings to make some of your own designs. Some companies do not provide software with their cutters. They prefer to give you a option of purchasing the software of your choice. In this case, you need to make sure that the software you purchase has drivers for your particular machine.
Brother Canvas Workspace
Some cutter software allows you to open or import files that you or others have created. But they provide only basic software features. They have very little in the way of creative design and editing tools. For example, Brother has provided the free Canvas Workspace software for Scan N Cut and Design N Cut users. It includes basic design features. But you will likely need to use what is called “third party software”, software made by another company. This third party design software can be used to create your cutting projects. In order for third party software to work with your cutter, it needs to have the option to export designs that will work with your cutter.
Software Import and Export Options
Silhouette Studio
Some cutters are provided with full featured design software. This software allows you to import, customize, and create cutting files. But the software may not allow you to export your work in formats that can be used with other cutters. For example, the free basic version of Silhouette Studiois excellent design software, but importing and exporting files in other formats requires paid software upgrades. Being able to export cutting files from your cutter software will be important if you want to use your cutting files with more than one cutter, or if you want to share or sell your files with someone else who uses a different cutter. Be sure to check the import and export options of the software you choose. Another thing to keep in mind is that Silhouette Studio does not allow the export of purchased designs from their online store in SVG format.
Cutters with Full-Featured Design Software
Finally, there are some cutters that are shipped with full-featured design software, that allows you to import and export cutting files. For example, Pazzles includes full-featured design software with the purchase of their cutters. Their software, InVue, (which may be purchased separately from a machine) allows you to import, create, customize, and export your cutting projects in SVG format. It included basic and advanced design functions. Therefore, this software serves as an excellent low-cost, third party cutting software.
While there are excellent cutters that do not have these important software options, it is essential that you consider creating your designs in software that does have these options. Therefore using additional design software may be necessary. In this case, make sure that the software you have chosen for your design work will work with the software provided with the machine you plan to use.
Design Software Options
The best time to evaluate software options is before you make your cutter purchase. This gives you more freedom as you consider design software options. So if you are looking into purchasing a new cutter, now is the time to consider your design software options. Every design software has a learning curve. So once you select a design software, you will need to stick with it for awhile. Learn all of the basic functions in the software that are needed for creating projects for your cutter. Then you can learn to use many of the advanced features in the software. Have patience as you learn.
Free Design Software
Inkscape
Inkscape
Inkscape is open source software that is free. This software has no plugins for cutters, so it is used strictly for designing. It does have many import and export options. Many cutter crafters use Inkscape for creating their cutting files, then export their designs in a format that can be imported into cutter software. Most cutter software will import SVG or DXF files that Inkscape can export.
Learning Inkscape
The down side to using Inkscape is finding adequate support for using it for cutting purposes. There are many more tutorials available covering Inkscape features today than there were in past years. Inkscape is so full of features for designers of all types, that finding the tools needed specifically for designing cutting files can be hard to find. The best course I have found for learning to use Inkscape for designing cutting files is one produced by Jennifer Maker called Cut Above SVG Design Course
Affordable Design Software for Sale
Pazzles InVue Software
Pazzles InVue is the most affordable third party design software for sale. It is excellent software for designing SVG cutting files. It cuts directly to the Pazzles Inspiration and Pazzles Vue cutters.InVue also allows for importing and exporting SVG and WPC cutting files, making it a great option to use as third party software for use with cutters that have more limited design tools.
Learning InVue
The Pazzles Craft Room offers excellent video training for using this software. You can find some free video tutorials for using this software on my YouTube channel. I also offer free Cutter Software support for this and most cutter software at the Cutter Software Facebook Group (Join to access free files and discussion group.)
Some third party design software will cut directly to a number of different cutters. This is handy, as you can design and cut your projects from the same software.
Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL)
The most up-to-date of these software options is Sure Cuts A Lot version 5 . You can download a free trial of this software for 15 days to see how you like it. Even if you cannot cut directly to your particular cutter, you can still create your designs in this software, and export your projects in most common formats, including SVG, SVG for Cricut, and Brother FCM. It can also import a large number of embroidery file types.
Learning Sure Cuts A Lot
ScrappyDew has an excellent course called SCAL Classroom covering how to use Sure Cuts A Lot, including a User’s Manual. There is a special offer for a discount for this course when you purchase the software.
Make The Cut (MTC)
Make The Cut Software
The Make The Cut software is excellent software for designing SVG cutting files. This software is no longer available for purchase. However, the thousands of people who own Make The Cut can still use it, since the software is not cloud-based. It is extremely important to protect your user registration number, in case your computer crashes. Save your entire Make The Cut! directory as well as your registration number to a thumb drive or a CD, in case you need to install Make The Cut to another computer. Copy everything from this folder C:Program Files (x86)Make The Cut! to the thumb drive. Then you can plug in the thumb drive to a new computer and copy these files to the new computer.
Make The Cut is full featured cutting software that will cut directly to many different cutters. It includes many advanced design features. The software imports and exports many different file types. There have not been updates to this software in several years, so plugins for newer cutters are not available. But the software is still quite competitive in the market for those designing SVG cutting files. You can create your own cutting files, or customize or edit designs that you have. Then you can select all (ctrl+a) and export as SVG (Ctrl+Shift+S). These SVG files may be imported into your favorite cutting software.
The User Gallery in Make The Cut is no longer functional. However, you can download thousands of designs from that Gallery. If you own Make The Cut, see this document to learn how to Retrieve your registration key by Sandy McCauley. She has also made some of the archived gallery files available for FREE download:
Files contributed by Dave (AKA Berry One) Dave contributed files primarily in MTC format. There are a few SVG files among his collection that even those who do not own Make The Cut can access.
MTC Gallery Rescue by User Paul Zingah These are primarily files in MTC format with PNG thumbnail images.
Learning Make The Cut
Support for Make The Cut software is available in the free User’s Manual as well as at the Make The Cut Forum, at the free MTC-Tuts Group (join to access free tutorials and cutting files), and at my YouTube channel.
Popup Card Studio
Those interested in making popup card designs will appreciate the option to copy and paste designs from the Make The Cut software to its companion software, Popup Card Studio (PCS). Popup Card Studio is no longer for sale. However, those who have purchased this software in the past can still use it to create popup cards. There are free YouTube tutorials for creating popup cards using Popup Card Studio on my YouTube channel. The user gallery is no longer functional. You can download an archive of most of the designs that were available in the PCS user gallery in SVG format. Even if you do not own Popup Card Studio, you may access these SVG files for making nearly 100 different popup cards.
Cricut Explore Air 2 Design Space Software
Not So Affordable Software For Designing SVG Cutting Files
Adobe Creative Suite
Illustrator is the professional vector design software. This cloud-based software includes tools for a wide variety of design professionals in many fields. Hence, it is quite complicated, and difficult to learn the specific design tools we need for designing SVG cutting Files. Illustrator does not offer plugins for direct cutting to cutters. But the files created in Illustrator can be exported for use with other cutter software. Illustrator became popular among crafty cutters who use MAC computers, when most cutter software did not offer support for MAC. Now it is more common to find cutter software that includes MAC support.
Learning Illustrator
Those aspiring to become professional designers may want to dive in to learning to use this software. Comprehensive support for cutter users is severely lacking for this software. I do recommend that if you want to be a design professional, that you get the entire Adobe Creative Suite, as you will likely need more than just Illustrator. I find that I use Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat Pro as much or more than Illustrator. If you plan to tackle Illustrator for designing SVG cutting files, I highly recommend Jennifer Maker’s Cut Above SVG Design Course . Jennifer is extremely diligent to provide personal help for her students in learning to use advanced software tools to create some amazing cutting projects.
Corel Draw
CorelDraw
The CorelDraw suite is another expensive vector design software that imports and exports files in many formats. Many professional cutters use this software, especially those who work with laser cutters and wood cutting machines. However, there is not much support for home cutter crafters using CorelDraw.
Favorite Features of CorelDraw
There are only a couple of features that I use in CorelDraw for my design work. My favorite is the Word Envelope that automatically fills a shape with text. See my video tutorial on how this works. The other feature in CorelDraw that I use is their TTF file export. I use this for creating fonts. CorelDraw does not provide plugins for cutting to our craft cutters, but many laser and CNC machines are shipped with plugin software that works with CorelDraw. If you have a machine that requires the use of CorelDraw, then you will need to invest in this software.
Design Software for Cricut Machines
Your older Cricut machine did not come with design software. You learned to use designs available on cartridges to create some amazing scrapbook pages, cards, 3D projects, and decorations for events. But there are times that you have some very creative ideas that you would like to try with your cutter, and you cannot find exactly the right cutting files in your cartridge collection. So perhaps it is time to learn to use cutter software so you can bring those creative ideas to life.
There are some older software versions that work with your older Cricut, including Cricut Craftroom, Make The Cut 4.1.0 or earlier, Sure Cuts A Lot 2.0, and FairyCut. But those are no longer being produced, and Cricut Craftroom is being closed. If you happen to have one of these, it would be a good idea to start learning to use it. Even very basic software can be used to create some amazing projects. The latest versions of Make The Cut and Sure Cuts A Lot allow you to use the latest and greatest software features, and transfer your designs to the older software so you can cut to your machine.
Cricut Upgrades
After Cricut Craftroom closes in mid-July, 2018, you will need to make some decisions. If you have a huge collection of cartridges to use with your older Cricut, you might want to consider upgrading to a Cricut Explore or Cricut Maker. Cricut Design Space, which is required for using these machines, does allow you to register your cartridges. Hence you can use all of your cartridge images and fonts on the newer machines. Cricut Design Space does have some nice design features to help you use your cartridge design collection more creatively. The software also allows you to import images and SVG files from other sources. For more information on how to use SVG files in Cricut Design Space see my post on How to Use SVG files in Cricut Design Space.
Do You Need a New Cutter?
You may need a new cutter if your creative needs have outgrown the features available with your current setup, or if support for your cutter has been discontinued. Different jailbreak softwares.
Discontinued Cutters
If you decide you do need a new cutter, it is important to consider your cutter software needs as well. Take some time to research the options available to you. An electronic cutter requires some kind of software to drive it. You need to make sure that the machine and software combination suits your needs. If you already have a favorite software for designing SVG cutting files, will it work with the cutter you are considering?
Note: Some affiliate links may be used in this post. I am affiliated only with products that I use. When you purchase products using my affiliate links, it does not cost you any more, but I will share some commission. Thanks!
Julie
Would you like to see some of my FREE SVG projects? Check them out in my FREE Resource Library.
This resource library is open to everyone for free. All you need is the password to get in, which you can get by filling out the form below.
Cricut Explore Air 2 Design Space Download
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