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Cricut Design Space is a familiar app to many crafters, and it’s a great place to start if you’re new to sublimation but familiar with Cricut. Here’s how to use Cricut Design Space for sublimation crafts, including how to get the best colors!
Cricut Maker 3 Design Space
Welcome to my sublimation series! This is the first post in a series of deep dives into some of the different software programs you can use to create your own sublimation. Since my blog uses a lot of Cricut, I thought I’d start with the Cricut Design Space, specifically using the Cricut Print and Cut feature.
What Is Cricut Design Space And What Does It Do?
We’ll cover how to upload images to Cricut Design Space, how to resize images, and how to print them so your color is as accurate as possible.
For more information on Cricut Print and Cut in general, check out The Ultimate Guide to Cricut Print and Cut.
When I started my sublimation journey, I really wanted to use Cricut’s Print and Cut feature with my sublimation prints. I hope to combine the power and precision of the Cricut with the flexibility and color range of my sublimation printer. For example, if you’re making circle ornaments like the one in this post, it’s easy to cut a circular sublimation transfer to place on the ornament, as opposed to cutting a circle by hand.
The easiest way to use Cricut Design Space for sublimation is to use the upload feature to upload sublimation PNG files. If you’re not a designer, this is probably your best bet. While you *technically* can create complex sublimation designs from scratch in Cricut Design Space using photos and patterns, it’s not the most robust design software overall. So uploading other people’s designs (or designs you’ve created yourself in another program) is a good place to start.
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You can also print images from the Cricut Image Library and then cut, but I find that sometimes the color can be a little unpredictable with these images. Very hit or miss for me.
The biggest limitation to using Cricut Design Space and Print and Cut is the size limitation – 6.75 inches by 9.25 inches tall. Therefore, you are limited in the size of the images you can print, and you can waste a lot of paper using this method. I’d rather waste less paper than crop a bunch of photos by hand – you’ll have to decide if that trade-off is worth it to you.
That said, I’m working on some way to decompress the print and then crop it for larger images – stay tuned for that!
For this post, I’m using this polar bear ornament design I got from DesignBundles.net (a great resource for sublimation files!). Click Download to download the PNG to Cricut Design Space. On the Select Image Type screen, select Complex.
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Click continue. On the Background Clearer screen, you’ll see that the image has a transparent background (indicated by the checkered squares). Most PNGs should have this transparent background, but if not, you can click to clear the background. Click Apply and Continue.
Then select your image and drag it onto your canvas. Resize to fit your decor. My metal ornaments are 3.5″ so I enlarged my image to 3.6″. I found that it was almost impossible to place the circle without a white edge, so I cheated on the size a bit to make sure it covered the entire surface of the ornament.
If you want, you can add a name using the Text tool. Choose your font, change your size, change the color and place in your decoration, making sure to place the name low enough so that it does not break through the hole in the decoration.
When you’re happy, select both the name and the image and click Flatten to make the image a single Print and Cut image. You can see it printed in the layers panel.
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On the Ready screen, you’ll see your image on a white piece of paper on the board with a black box around it. The black registration marks are used by your Cricut’s sensors to read exactly where your image is.
Important: Click Mirror to restore your image. You have to do this or your image will lag when you put it on your makeup. Click “Continue” to proceed to the Build Screen.
Unlike other more robust software like Photoshop, Cricut Design Space does not have a way to manage color within the program using an ICC profile. An ICC profiler is basically a small computer
BUT, there is a way to use an ICC profile with Cricut Design Space – you just have to know where to look!
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Important: I recently dived into using ICC profiles, which includes how to install ICC profiles on your Mac or PC. Start there – this message will appear after you install the ICC profile on your computer. You must first set up your ICC profile or you will not be able to manage colors in Cricut Design Space.
Overall, I found the ICC profile to greatly improve the quality of my sublimation images printed through Cricut Design Space, as you can see here. This is the original Design Space image from above.
Using the method below, I printed the image using color management and again using the ICC profile. What a difference!
The ornament on the left has no color controls and is very green/blue compared to the original. There is a blue-green cast throughout the image and too much, especially in the trees. The bear’s cheeks are more orange than pink.
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The picture on the right is closer. Overall, it’s a bit pinker and the trees aren’t quite as yellow (see my color management caveats below), but overall it’s closer to how it looks on screen.
Color management depends on many things, including your specific printer, the types of sublimation ink in your printer, the sublimation paper you use, the software you use to create the images and the paper it is placed on. you picture, the humidity in the environment. your creativity and whether Mercury is in retrograde (well, maybe not that last one, but seriously, there are a lot of variables).
As shown above, Cricut Design Space generally works fine with the ICC profile using my variables. It keeps my photos from being overdone and too green. However, with the ICC profile in Design Space, I’m having a bit of a hard time with things being a bit pink in general, and sometimes I struggle to get true red (it’s often a bit pink). But it really depends on a number of factors.
You may have a completely different experience with your combination of factors. This is where tests come in handy. I have a large sheet of polyester fabric for test prints so I don’t waste more expensive blanks – I highly recommend this practice.
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Okay, let’s go back to the design space! Instructions for Mac and PC are below. Note that you must install an ICC profile before proceeding.
On the creation screen, Design Space will ask you to print your image. Click Send to Printer and this box will appear. Keep the Add Blood option selected, but also use the System dialog box. Click Print.
That system dialog box will probably appear *behind* your Design Space window, so you’ll need to drag the Design Space program a bit to see that window. Here you will see a number of options. Choose your sublimation printer. In the middle of this window, you will see a drop down. Click here and choose a color match.
From here, select ColorSync. If you remember to set up your own ICC profile, ColorSync is a Mac utility for color management. If you see your ICC profile name there, check it. If not, click Other Profiles and select your profile from the list.
Cricut Print Then Cut 101
From here you can choose the quality of your print (I usually choose Quality). Do not select a mirror image here. You’ve done it in Design Space, and trust me you’ll do it here.
After printing your image, place it in the upper left corner of your Cricut cutting board, insert it into your machine, and your Cricut will read the registration marks and cut around your image.
To select your ICC profile, you first need to go to the Start box and type “Color Management”. This will open your color management window. Then select your printer from the Device drop-down box. In my case, I use my Epson ET4700.
You will see that your printer has color profiles installed on it. You must add the ICC profile you installed before you can use it with this printer.
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Now you will see the original profile and IC that you installed and selected. you will