Design App For Glow Forge

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Before we get to the tutorials and all the fun stuff you can do with your new Glowforge, you should probably know about the Glowforge and its software. The Glowforge does not come with any type of design software. The Glowforge app (app.glowforge.com) is solely an internet based program that controls the machine. This means that you'll need an outside program to create your designs.

4 Ways to Get Designs into Glowforge

There's four different ways to use designs in the Glowforge:

Create something from the Glowforge catalog.
Import a design in SVG, JPG, PDF, or PNG format.
Hand draw a design and allow the Glowforge machine to trace and cut or engrave it.
Use a photo.

What Software Can I Use to Design?

As long as your software can create an SVG, JPG, PDF, or PNG – you can use it with the Glowforge. Here's a list of some software that can be used that you might already be familiar with:

Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
Microsoft Word
PicMonkey
GIMP
Canva
Inkscape
CorelDraw
Silhouette Studio

What is Silhouette Studio?

Since many readers of this blog will be coming from the Cutting for Business blog, I'm going to stay with what is most familiar when designing on this blog, Made with Forge. I'll be using Silhouette Studio.

If you aren't familiar with Silhouette Studio, here's a 30 second overview: Silhouette Studio is a robust design program that is made to create designs to be used with the Silhouette Portrait, Silhouette Cameo, and Silhouette Curio electronic cutting machines. Since Silhouette Studio can create JPG, SVG, PDF, and PNG images – it's perfect for using with a Glowforge. You can download Silhouette Studio's Basic version at this link for free – even if you don't own a Silhouette machine.

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What materials can a Glowforge cut and engrave? By madewithforge.com.