What happens when you convert OTF to SVG
- FontForge, the open-source font editor, reads the OTF on our conversion server and writes every glyph as an SVG font: one SVG file whose glyph elements hold each character's outline, with its advance width and kerning.
- An SVG font is not a picture. Opened in a browser or image viewer it shows nothing, because it only defines letter shapes. Safari on old iPhones used SVG fonts on web pages; current browsers other than Safari do not support them.
- To see or edit the outlines, open the SVG in FontForge or Inkscape, or copy a glyph's path data into your own SVG drawing. Hinting and OpenType features such as ligature rules are not part of an SVG font.
- This conversion runs on our server: the file is uploaded, converted, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result has been sent back to you. Nothing is kept. Files up to 25 MB are accepted.
How to convert OTF to SVG online
- Press "Choose OTF files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. Files up to 25 MB each can be converted.
- There are no settings to choose: the converter keeps everything the target format can hold.
- Press "Convert to SVG". The file is uploaded to our conversion server, converted in a few seconds, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result is sent back.
- Save each SVG with its download button. Our server has already deleted both your OTF and the SVG by then.
Why convert OTF to SVG?
OTF files usually come from professional typography, ligatures and design work. An SVG font is what old versions of Safari on iPhone and iPad needed to show custom web fonts, and it is a convenient way to get at a font's glyph outlines as SVG path data for design, embroidery, cutting or plotting work. It is not an ordinary SVG picture: it defines letter shapes and draws nothing by itself.
How to convert OTF to SVG on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
On Windows
Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your OTF files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each SVG is saved to your Downloads folder.
On a Mac
Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the OTF files from Finder onto the drop zone and the SVG files land in Downloads.
On iPhone and iPad
Open the page in Safari and tap Choose OTF files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted SVG appears in Files, in the Downloads folder; to put it in your photo library, open it there, tap Share and choose Save Image.
On Android
Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose OTF files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The SVG is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.
Best settings for OTF to SVG
There are no settings: every glyph in the font is written, with its Unicode value, name and advance width.
If you only need a few letters as artwork, type them in a design program and convert the text to outlines there; that gives an ordinary SVG picture.
OTF vs SVG: the differences
| OTF | SVG | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | OpenType font | Scalable Vector Graphics |
| Type | font | image |
| Created by | Microsoft and Adobe | the World Wide Web Consortium |
| First released | 1996 | 2001 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossless |
| Transparency | n/a | Yes |
| Animation | n/a | Yes |
| Vector or raster | n/a | Vector |
| Colour | n/a | any colour, described as shapes rather than pixels |
| What it holds | glyph outlines, usually cubic PostScript curves, plus typographic features | any colour, described as shapes rather than pixels |
| In a browser | installs on Windows, Mac and Linux; browsers load it through CSS | renders natively in every browser |
| Common uses | professional typography, ligatures and design work | logos, icons, charts and illustrations on the web |
| MIME type | font/otf | image/svg+xml |
About OTF and SVG files
What is an OTF file?
OpenType extends TrueType with advanced typography such as ligatures and alternate glyphs. An .otf file usually holds PostScript-style cubic outlines rather than TrueType curves.
What is an SVG file?
SVG describes shapes as text instructions, so it stays sharp at any size and a simple logo can be under 5 KB. Turning it into pixels fixes it at one resolution, so choose the output size before converting.
OTF to SVG not working? Common problems
- "Files up to 25 MB can be converted." Server conversions have a size limit. A font that large usually holds several scripts; subset it to the characters you need first.
- "The conversion took too long and was stopped." Very long or complex files can pass the 90 second limit. Split the file and convert the parts.
- "This file is not really in OTF format." The converter checks every file before it runs anything, so a file of another format renamed to .otf is refused. Choose the page for its real format.
Convert OTF to SVG from the command line
FontForge does the same on your own computer:
fontforge -lang=py -c "import fontforge, sys; fontforge.open(sys.argv[1]).generate(sys.argv[2])" input.otf output.svgConverting on your own computer keeps the file entirely local, which is worth it for very large or very sensitive documents. For everything else, the converter on this page does it without installing anything.
OTF to SVG converter FAQ
Will I lose quality converting OTF to SVG?
The glyph outlines are copied exactly, curves included. Hinting and OpenType layout features are left out, because an SVG font has no place for them.
Why is the SVG a different size from the OTF?
Much larger than the OTF: every outline is written out as readable text path data, uncompressed.
Are my OTF files uploaded?
Yes, for this conversion. Writing an SVG font needs FontForge, the open-source font editor, which cannot run in a browser. The file travels over an encrypted connection, is converted in a private temporary folder, and is deleted together with the SVG as soon as the result has been sent back to you. We do not keep, read or share it.
Can I convert several OTF files to SVG at once?
Yes. Select or drop as many files as you like; they are converted one after another and each gets its own download button.
How do I open an SVG file?
The SVG this page makes is an SVG font. It opens in FontForge and Inkscape, where each glyph can be inspected; a browser or image viewer shows an empty page, because the file defines letter shapes rather than a picture.
Is this OTF to SVG converter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no watermark. Because this conversion uses our server, there is a fair-use limit of 25 MB per file and a number of files per hour, which stops the service being overloaded.
Can I convert OTF to SVG on my phone?
Yes. It works in Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome on Android. The conversion happens on our server, so it is as fast on a phone as on a computer; the SVG is saved to your Downloads folder.