Problem with SVG File

[homespuncottage]

I am working on a Christmas card, and uploaded a the text which is an svg file from Illustrator and the file uploads, but the design tool freezes and I can't do anything at that point. I'm not sure what is happening. This is a new one. 

[paperiecris]

That happens to me also if I upload a SGV file converted from a png or jpeg. Because of that I only upload original svg files. 
I create svg with Affinity Designer though.

[almawad]

I   wanted   to create  a  large area  rug . I  converted one of my popular   design  to   svg . I can not upload it .  What is the matter ? No more  svg file  on Zazzle ? 

[DesertSky]

I'm having a similar issue. I tried uploading text that is a svg file made in Affinity Designer 2.2. It appears to upload but then there's nothing there, it's completely blank. I thought it was just me doing something wrong because I'm new to Affinity Designer (used DrawPlus for years and was able to upload text that was svg). I am able to upload svg images made in Affinity Designer, just not text.  It would be nice to know if this is a Zazzle issue, or if I'm just not doing something I need to do with text. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any replies. 

[Zorinda]

I had the same problem with text in Affinity Designer until I started to play around with it.  When you go to export your SVG, you need to enable the “text as curves” switch on the top right (that’s where it is on the iPad version of Affinity). That fixed it for me. 

[DesertSky]

@Zorinda Thanks for replying, I really appreciate it. I was so happy to see your response and was certain that must be the answer, but unfortunately that didn't work for me. I'm wondering if it's because I'm using an outline on the text. I can't find a solution online, so I guess I'll have to just keep playing around with it. If all else fails, I guess I'll just export it as a png. Thanks again for the suggestion! 

[Zorinda]

You could go to the Affinity forums and describe the issue.  That would be my next stop.  I’ve gotten good help there before.  

[Zorinda]

DesertSky, my original suggestion worked with no stroke border, just plain text. So I added stroke.  I tried to export with “text as curves” switched on.  The result was blank.  Then I tried something else.  Under Operations I chose “convert to curves”. Then I exported as a normal SVG skipping turning the text as curves switch in the export window.  The result was 2 color text and the fact that I learned something useful!  Hope it works for you! 

[Fiorenzo]

Be aware that Zazzle's designer does NOT support the full capability of the SVG file type but a limited, "plain" variant used e.g. for the creation of shapes/icons, which requires a specific approach to creating/exporting. In the beginning, only one single shape was supported, then it got expanded to a limited number of shapes that can be colored separately. If you want to use complex, "regular" vectors, export to PDF and upload this one. Note that you can't change colors in this case. If you want to create SVG shapes/symbols to be used in zazzle as such, you need to:

• Use only plain colors, no gradients
• Merge elements to one (or several to color separately in Zazzle) shape(s) using the union or combine tools
• Don't group elements
• No strokes/outlines on objects or convert strokes into objects/paths to get only outlines (transparent inside)
• No images
• Convert text to objects/paths, ungroup where needed and merge/combine all separate elements together to one single shape
• Save/export appropriately when there are such options in your software

Note that even if you do all right, your shape (especially shapes with "holes") may not be imported correctly or at all. In this case, make sure all is done right, and if yes, try different export options where available, retry, and if it still doesn't work, try to redo the shape, break apart combined elements and combine them new, reduce the path nodes, invert the "direction" of combined path elements, merge again and re-export and upload. Sometimes it takes just one simple break apart and re-combine and merge to make it work.

[Zorinda]

Thanks for the excellent information.  I was wondering if you might have any insight as to why some SVGs appear on Zazzle with just the ability to adjust color while others allow you to adjust both fill and border.   

[Fiorenzo]

Most welcome. I can't tell, only assume, because I'm not using SVG and just tested it out when they got introduced the first time as just 1-color shape. Back then you could import only combined 1-object shapes, which you could then colorize and provide with a border. Didn't test it out when they introduced the more-color variant. I assume you can add and adjust both fill and border on single shapes but only change the fill color on more-color variants that are made of a certain number of different shapes, each one representing one certain color that can be addressed and set in Zazzle. Most certainly a technical choice to not make the handling too complex. You can easily check it out if I'm right by comparing a simple single shape (fill and border should be adjustable) with a more-object SVG that allows you to define a separate color for each object (van you add a border or not?).