FontCreator Tutorials

Import Vector Artwork: SVG, EPS, AI & Illustrator to Font

written by Erwin Denissen, published June 25, 2026

If your artwork is already vector — an SVG, an Illustrator or Inkscape drawing, an EPS, AI or PDF — don't trace it. FontCreator imports the paths directly, which is faster than auto-tracing a raster image and gives you cleaner contours with far fewer points. This guide covers importing vector files, pasting straight from a vector editor, and the one preparation step that makes the difference between a perfect import and a broken one.

You'll need: FontCreator (Windows and macOS), and vector artwork — an SVG, EPS, AI or PDF file, or a drawing open in Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape or Affinity Designer.

Vector or raster — pick the right import

FontCreator has two separate import paths, and using the wrong one wastes effort:

Vector source (SVG, EPS, AI, PDF, or anything you can copy from a vector editor) → import it as outlines, covered here. You keep crisp curves and minimal points.
Raster source (a scan, a photo, a signature, a PNG/JPG) → auto-trace it instead. See Create a Font from an Image.

If you have a vector file, importing it directly always beats exporting it to a bitmap and tracing that back.

Before you import: convert strokes to outlines

This is the single most important step. FontCreator imports only the bare closed paths — it ignores strokes, fills, gradients and text, and it automatically closes any open paths. So a design whose thickness comes from a stroke (a line with a weight, an outlined rectangle) imports wrong: the thickness disappears, thin lines become useless two-point contours and get discarded, and gaps drawn with a stroked path close up.

The fix is to turn every stroke into a filled shape before importing:

In Adobe Illustrator: select all objects, then Object → Path → Outline Stroke.
In Inkscape: select all, then Path → Stroke to Path.
In Affinity Designer: select all, then Layer → Expand Stroke.

Also convert any live text to outlines, and flatten/expand gradients or effects to plain shapes — only the resulting closed paths will come across.

> Watch out: if, after outlining strokes, the shape looks distorted or loses fine detail, scale the artwork up in the vector editor first, then outline the strokes. Working larger preserves small features.

Import a vector file

Vector and raster files use the same command — there's no separate "Import Vector Image" menu item. Open the glyph you want to draw into, then import the file:

Run Tools → Import Artwork…. (The toolbar button reads "Import Image" and the right-click entry "Import Image…", so look for either if the menu item is hard to spot.) Choose your .svg, .eps, .ai, .ps, .pdf or .glif file — FontCreator recognises the vector formats automatically and imports them as outlines rather than tracing them.
FontCreator extracts the closed paths and drops them into the glyph as contours.
Inspect the result — count the contours and points and confirm the shape is intact.

> Tip — import a whole alphabet at once. You can drag several image files from Windows Explorer straight onto the Font Overview; they import in sequence, each following the glyph you drop it onto. PDF files import as vectors, so a 26-letter set imports in seconds with far fewer nodes than bitmaps would produce.

Or paste straight from your vector editor

You don't have to save a file at all. FontCreator exchanges vector outlines with Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity Designer and Photoshop by copy and paste:

In the vector editor, select your (stroke-outlined) artwork and copy it.
In FontCreator, open the target glyph and paste.

The pasted outlines arrive at a size driven by your import settings — set those once and every paste lands consistently (next section).

Configure the Exchange settings

FontCreator uses the Exchange settings whenever you import vector artwork or copy and paste contours between FontCreator and an external vector editor.

On Windows, open Tools → Options. On macOS, open FontCreator → Settings. Then select the Exchange page.

Preserve the original curve format

Under Exchange Glyph Outlines, set Preferred outline format to Don’t change… when you want FontCreator to preserve the quadratic or cubic curve format of the artwork being exchanged.

This is usually the best choice when you design outlines in another vector application and move them back and forth repeatedly. It avoids unnecessary conversion between cubic and quadratic Bézier curves, which can change the number or position of points.

You can still choose the final TrueType or CFF/PostScript outline format later when you export the font.

Match the scale of the external document

Under Vector Based Images, set Pixels per em to match the pixel scale used by your external vector document. Measure the artwork while the external application displays dimensions in pixels.

The height of the document or artboard is often a useful value. For example:

with the default Pixels per em value of 512, use a design area approximately 512 px high;
with Pixels per em set to 1000, use a design area approximately 1000 px high.

The exact value depends on how the artwork is positioned and scaled in the external document. The important point is to use the same setup consistently for every glyph.

Control the imported position

Use Origin X and Origin Y to match FontCreator’s origin to the coordinate system used in the external document. This helps imported or pasted outlines retain their intended scale and position.

Enable Move imported outlines to origin (0,0) when you always want FontCreator to move the imported artwork to the font origin. Leave it disabled when the original position relative to the external document’s origin must be preserved.

Once these settings match your external document, subsequent imports and pasted outlines should arrive at a consistent scale and position.

After importing: clean up

Imported vector paths are real, editable contours, but give them a quick pass:

Overlapping paths can fill incorrectly (holes filled in, or counters lost). Run a Remove Overlap / union pass, and check that outer contours and inner counters run in opposite directions.
Curve format: Most vector editors use cubic Bézier curves. FontCreator handles imported and pasted curves according to Options/Settings → Exchange → Preferred outline format. Choose Don’t change… to preserve the incoming curve format and avoid unnecessary cubic-to-quadratic or quadratic-to-cubic conversion.
Point count: vector imports are already lean, but remove any redundant on-curve points and set extremes where needed.

> Note: strokes that you forgot to outline can't be recovered after import — go back to the vector editor, outline the strokes, and re-import.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Thickness gone, shape looks like a thin skeleton	Strokes weren't outlined; FontCreator dropped them	Outline Stroke / Stroke to Path in the editor, re-import
Thin lines vanished entirely	Open paths became 2-point contours and were discarded	Outline the strokes so they become closed shapes
A deliberate gap closed up	The gap was drawn with a stroked open path	Outline strokes first; build gaps from closed shapes
Counters filled in / holes solid	Overlapping paths or wrong contour directions	Remove Overlap; reverse inner-contour direction
Glyph imports too small or too large	Pixels per em does not match the pixel scale of the external document	Set Pixels per em in Options/Settings → Exchange to match the document or artboard size used by your vector editor
Letters don't sit on the baseline	Origin not set, or artwork positioned inconsistently	Tick "Move imported outlines to origin (0,0)" in Options → Exchange, and align each glyph the same way in its artboard
Curves gain extra points or change slightly	The Preferred outline format causes conversion between cubic and quadratic curves	Set Preferred outline format to Don’t change… while exchanging artwork

Frequently asked questions

Can FontCreator import SVG files? Yes. FontCreator imports vector artwork including SVG, EPS, AI and PDF as editable glyph contours. Outline any strokes in your vector editor first so thickness isn't lost.

Does FontCreator import strokes, fills and gradients? No — it extracts only the closed paths and ignores strokes, fills, gradients and live text. Convert strokes to outlines (and text to outlines) before importing.

Can I copy and paste from Adobe Illustrator? Yes. You can copy vector artwork in Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity Designer or Photoshop and paste it straight into a glyph in FontCreator, no file export needed.

How do I turn an SVG (or a set of SVGs) into a font? Import each SVG into the matching glyph (or drag a folder of vector files onto the Font Overview to import a whole set in sequence), clean up overlaps, set the metrics, then export to TTF/OTF/WOFF. See Export a Font.

Vector or auto-trace — which is better? If your source is vector, import it directly: it's faster and gives cleaner contours with fewer points. Auto-tracing is for raster sources like scans and photos.

Can I get an outline back out as SVG? Yes — to send a glyph's outlines back to a vector editor, use Tools → Save as SVG…, which exports the selected glyph as an SVG outline file. (Don't confuse this with the glyph editor's "Load SVG…" colour-SVG feature, which is for building SVG colour fonts — a different job entirely.)