My SVG file was rejected, what do I do?

Short answer: The message you get names the most common cause: a drawing area far larger than the logo. Crop it to the logo itself and upload the file again. Three other causes are possible.

1. “This SVG file could not be converted”

The full message: “Error: this SVG file could not be converted. Crop its drawing area (viewBox) to the logo and try again.”

The most common cause really is the one the message names. An SVG carries a drawing area — its viewBox — which defines the space the logo sits in. When that area is enormous compared with the logo (a 2 cm drawing on a one-metre sheet, typically because the file was exported from a whole artboard), the logo takes up a tiny fraction of the image and the conversion fails.

What to ask your graphic designer for: crop the drawing area tightly around the logo, then re-export. In Illustrator or Inkscape this is the “fit document to artwork” operation; it does not alter the logo, only the frame around it.

The same message covers other cases

This message also appears when the file is not in fact an SVG at all (an image simply renamed to .svg), or when it contains things we refuse on safety grounds: executable code (a script), or links to outside files. A logo needs neither — ask your graphic designer for a clean export, with no script and no linked resource. If none of that means anything to you, email us the file at logo@dagoba.app and we will tell you what is blocking it.

2. “This SVG file contains no vector drawing at all”

The full message: “Error: this SVG file contains no vector drawing at all, only a bitmap image, and it could not be converted. Upload that image itself (PNG) rather than the SVG file.”

Your file is not genuine vector artwork: it is an image, simply placed in an SVG wrapper. Do exactly what the message says — upload the image itself, as a PNG. You lose nothing: the SVG was adding no quality at all. See My file is an SVG or a PDF but you say it is not vector.

3. “Your uploaded file size exceeds 6 Mb”

The limit is 6 MB. On a vector file that is a signal in itself: a genuinely vector logo weighs a few tens of kilobytes, rarely more than 300 KB. An SVG of several megabytes almost always contains an embedded image — go back to point 2.

4. The logo saves, but a red line appears

“Attention, this vector file (SVG) could not be prepared for printing. Crop the SVG's drawing area (viewBox) to the logo itself, then upload it again.”

Here the file was accepted and your shop displays normally — it is the preparation of the print file that failed, at one or more marking sizes. The remedy is the same as in point 1: crop the drawing area and upload the file again into the existing logo, see I have received my real logo, how do I replace it.

While that line is there, the logo cannot be manufactured: deal with it before the shop opens.

As a last resort

If none of these leads unblocks the situation, don't lose time over it: email us the file at logo@dagoba.app. We will look at it and send you back something usable. In the meantime you can upload a PNG and carry on building your shop — see I do not have my final logo yet, can I start.