Illustrator svg or png files not importing in at 100% size

Community Support
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I’ve drawn flower petals to etch on pieces of glass. I exported them as SVG (not responsive) and cut them out of cardboard to make sure they are the right size and shape. I then added a couple of lines to each and imported the final version to Glowforge to etch and the SVG file imported at about 70% of size. I tried a PNG version and it imports at about 125% of size. I’ve rebooted everything; I saved art onto a new file. Can’t think of why this would happen in the first place, but any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

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I’m not an Illustrator user - I use Affinity Designer on my iPad. But I create a new design with a measurement of 12x20 as the “bed”. I’ve had success with a dpi of 96 but I’ve seen others note it might need to be 72 dpi. You can search the forum for that. Keeping the base the same size as the GF has helped me keep everything the right size when I save them as a svg and import into the GUI. Especially when I’m doing parts that get done on different materials for the same design.

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The Glowforge expects designs to be 96 dpi. If you export your SVG at 72 dpi, which is default for some design programs, your size will be off.

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Thanks to both of you for your comments. The 96-to-72-dpi discrepancy described the import-size problem perfectly. However, since I’m creating vector files, the dpi doesn’t really come into play for me. BUT, that ratio of 96 to 72 got me to thinking and when I checked the original file (a composite file of all 11 shapes I’m drawing), the default drawing units were inches. When I divided the 11 shapes into individual files, they were pasted into drawings with points as my default drawing units (my usual default–from the “good ol’ days” of typesetting :blush:, plus I hate working in three-decimal measurements instead of whole numbers). It looks like working in points brings into account this dpi issue. I changed the files to inches and everything worked as expected.

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I’m so glad to hear that @geek2nurse and @flossqueencathe were able to provide some great instructions, and get you properly printing.

I’m going to close this topic for now, but please do not hesitate to reach out to us directly at support@glowforge.com if you run into anymore trouble.