In March 2021, Cricut announced some changes to Cricut Design Space, including image upload limitations, offset, project search, and more. Here’s everything you need to know about these new Cricut Design space updates.
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Here’s everything you need to know about the Cricut Design Space updates from March 2021.
Note that I don’t have any insider information. I am not a Cricut employee and they don’t consult me on any decision they make as much as that would make my life easier (please call me if you want my input, okay Cricut?)! I heard the announcement with everyone else!
Cricut Design Space 20-Upload Limit
UPDATE: In the original update, Cricut announced plans to move Cricut Design Space to a semi-paid model. In that announcement, they said Design Space will remain free for users but there will be a limit of 20 uploads per month. OR, you can become a Cricut Access member for $10 per month, and you’ll get unlimited uploads and access to a library of more than 100,000 images.
There was A LOT of negative feedback about this decision, and a few days later they backtracked and changed the policy.
Does Cricut Brick Machines?
I’ve also heard rumors that Cricut is “bricking” old machines if you try and sell them (basically deactivating them and making it impossible for people to sell their machines) to change to another brand machine.
From what I can tell, this is a rumor that is based on Cricut’s policy that when a machine is deactivated because of a warranty replacement, they may brick the old broken machine to make sure that you don’t sell it since they are sending a replacement machine. People are sharing these screenshots out of context.
I’ve also seen recent Cricut support chat screenshots that show that they are NOT bricking machines when you sell them. So should you want to sell yours and move to a competitor brand or pick up an entirely new hobby, the person you sell your machine to shouldn’t have a problem using your old Cricut.
Of course, reach out to Cricut Support and see what they say if you want to know more.
Cricut Design Space Offset
Learn more in my post All About Cricut Offset!
In addition to that big policy change, Cricut also announced some additional coming features and functionalities. I am, by far, most excited about the new offset feature. I literally wrote a post on how to “hack” an offset because it’s such a popular request.
So I am really excited for this feature—it makes creating layered designs within Design Space so much easier. It’s also great for turning files into stickers! I’ll have a big tutorial once this is available in my own Design Space account.
Note that offset is only available for desktop right now, not the apps.
Project Search coming to Cricut Design Space
Another one I’m really looking forward to is being able to search my own projects I’ve saved. Right now I just scroll and hope I find it. But with the update you’ll be able to search for your projects based on keywords.
Copy and Paste Between Cricut Projects
This is another feature I’m looking forward to—we’ll soon have the ability to copy and paste our projects from one Canvas to another. Often I’ll create a bunch of files in a single Canvas as I try and figure out what works. It will be nice to save the final file to share in a separate Canvas, but also have all of my “work in progress” files in the original Canvas.
More Updates Coming Soon
Here are some more features coming soon! As these features start to roll out, I’ll make sure to give you all the details. You can learn a bit more about all of these in Cricut’s update post.
- Project Collections: organize your projects in folders
- Kerning: better control over letterspacing when working with text
- Pen Thickness on Canvas: get a better idea of how your project will look if you use thicker markers
- Profile Search: find projects by specific desginers/crafters
- Faster Image and Text Load: exactly what it says it is
If you have questions about any of these updates or features, please leave them in the comments. Again, I am not Cricut so while I’m happy to be here for you to vent to, Cricut won’t see your comments, complaints, or suggestions unless you direct them to support@cricut.com or one of their other support lines.
More Cricut Design Space Posts
- DIY Trick or Treat Bags with the Cricut - October 18, 2021
- Magic SVG Bundle for Cricut and Silhouette - October 15, 2021
- Free Printable Thanksgiving I-Spy Game! - October 14, 2021
Barbara says
What’s your guess or rumors you’ve heard about a release of Cricut Maker 2? With the maker being sold at discounted prices everywhere, I am suspicious there is a new version in the offing.
BETH BONNEVILLE says
My design space does not show the offset feature. I do not see where I can find help on this. I am using windows 10. What else do I need to do?????
Crystal Summers says
Hi Beth,
Cricut is still rolling out the update. There isn’t an exact date, but you should have access to the new update soon!
Happy crafting,
Crystal, HLMS Community Manager
Linda says
Be sure to go under Settings and change your canvas style to New instead of Classic. This should give the option right next to the Edit button. :)
Tina M Conard says
I have Windows 10 Home 64 bit, but do not get the Offset feature, which I was so looking forward to. Is Windows 10 Home not compatible?
Linda says
Be sure to go under Settings and change your canvas style to New ( not classic) . That should give you the Offset option. :)
Dianne Gerstmann says
I am not able to customize a previously made project when the app is in full screen on MacOS. Very frustrating until I realized it would open to customize if I wasn’t in full screen – phew!!!!
Maria Monica Rodriguez says
Not able to save any projects from my iPad or laptop.
Cori George says
Hi Maria — what do you mean? You’re not able to upload projects to Cricut Design Space? You can’t save them within Cricut Design Space? Something else?
Madeline says
I have never said anything bad about a product, muchless a Cricut machine, but I’ll tell you., this is the last machine I buy from them. Their Design Space software is a horror and their customer service has taken a terrible dive. No one can give you a logical or helpful answer. You cannot email them. -Their chat is a joke.
I have not been able to use my machine for over months.
I HATE IT!
I HATE THE WHOLE THING!
It’s no wonder they are having to put everything on such sales as the ones they are having these days. Heck… no one wants them.
BUY A SIHOUTTE AND YOU’LL BE HAPPIER AND ACTUALLY ABLE TO MAKE SOMETHING.
Deb says
I agree, Madeline. I dislike Cricut so so much. I waffled between the Silhouette and Cricut. Went with Cricut because the machine quality seemed better. But their software is so limited and they put so many restrictions on the user. I regret my purchase :-(
Maggie says
Madeline, I feel the same way. I’ve been having such issues with Design Space lately. I used to love using my machine but now it’s such a chore. I have to fight with it to do anything. I don’t enjoy it anymore. I agree that their customer service has gone down hill and I’m not sure why they have the chat feature because it’s useless. I’m seriously considering junking my cricut and buy a Silhouette. Sadly my cricut causes me too much stress these days.
Charlene says
Wow, that is the reason I have a Scan N Cut. They are so much simpler to use and you don’t have to be online to use them.
I have taken my machine to someone’s house, scanned in what I wanted to cut or draw, scanned the mat with the medium I wanted, placed my image off the USB drive, out of memory and cut, draw, emboss, or foil. How much simpler can it get.
Some complain about mat purchases. I would rather do that if needed then pay a monthly fee or purchase designs from Design Space and be stuck with someone telling me I needed a new computer, tablet or phone.
To each his own.
Lee says
I’m wondering if they made any software changes in the update. Design Space on my wife’s Windows laptop suddenly refused to print and Cricut’s is the only app with this problem. It was crazy because we got all this stuff for her to make fun stuff for our kid’s birthday party and it started this “infinite spooling” glitch the day before.
Deb says
I don’t know if my problem is new or not, but maybe you’ve seen this? I don’t have a subscription, so I created a project with some simple flowers using Cricut freebies. Today I went into that project intending to cut more. Now some of the flower designs cost $$. Are freebies only free for a limited time? And then later when you cut a project using them, you have to pay? Has this happened to anyone else?
Traci says
I do wonder if Cricut have any plans for new Cricut Joy (2nd gen?) if so, would love for them to include print and cut feature.
Danielle Owen says
Hi,
On the new update the font ‘Arial Black’ is no longer available. Do you know if I can get this if I pay monthly?
Thanks
Danielle
Cori George says
Arial Black is not a Cricut font—that would be a font from your computer. Did you get a new computer or could you have deleted a font by accident?
These are similar free fonts if you’d like to try one: https://www.1001fonts.com/arial+black-fonts.html
april jones says
i have subscription and arial black not available for me either. i’m going to try to install a similar font because it is still on my system, just not design space. :(
mel says
im having issues uploading svg files and i didnt have this issue before what am i missing what did they do? whats the point of getting a machine that they want to limit us its utterly wrong
Crystal Summers says
Hi Mel,
I think it would be best for you to reach out to Cricut Support. It sounds like it’s a technical issue. They should be able to troubleshoot with you.
Hope this helps!
Crystal, HLMS Community Manager
Denis Hill says
Why do Cricut insist on the design space updates for older machine/pc/mac os users, I am happy with my cricut maker and design space as it is .However, they are telling me I can’t stop the update for design space and so design space stops working after the update (too old of an OS).
My computers cannot be update with newer OS (2009 Imac and a 2010 Imac) and so I can’t use my cricut anymore.
Waiting for a call back from a “call manager” as the person I spoke to could not help at all and clearly did not want to help !
Crystal Summers says
Hi Denis,
I totally understand your frustration. However, we are unable to troubleshoot Cricut software and business decisions. I would say your best bet is to contact Cricut Support. It sounds like you already have. Perhaps, you can try to call again and see if you have a different outcome.
Good luck,
Crystal, HLMS Community Manager