How to Open Zip Files In Silhouette Studio

One thing I hear time and time again from people is that they've purchased a graphics bundle but they can't get the files to open in Silhouette Studio.

A lot of times when you get graphics bundles like this they come as a zip file...with all the individual files inside. Those inside files can be opened in Silhouette Studio - but the zip file can't. That's where the error usually comes in.

Before you can import anything into Silhouette Studio, the zipped file needs to be extracted.

A zip file is basically a compressed folder that contains several other files and folders. However, Silhouette Studio can't open a zip folder - no program can.

What Silhouette Studio can open is the files that are inside the zip file. So first you have to UNzip the zip folder.

To do so..simply double click the zip file. This should result in a little green icon to show that the unzipping is happening.

When you unzip the file it will now look like a regular folder.  But you can't open this folder in Silhouette Studio either.  Instead, inside that folder are all the files that you CAN open with Silhouette.

In this case the files are PNGs. Sometimes they might be SVGs or DXF files. Just remember, you'll need Designer Edition to open SVGs.

Now that you have a folder full of files that Studio can open, you can bulk import the files into Silhouette Studio.  Select all of the files in the folder by holding down shift and selecting each file. Then it's as easy as a drag and drop into a folder in your Silhouette Studio library!

One thing to keep in mind is with all the various Silhouette Studio versions some versions require you to 'drop' into the library folder itself (red arrow) and some require you to 'drop' into the window to the right of the folder list (green arrow). So there's that. 

So..if you're wondering why you can't import graphic design bundle files into your library or you're getting an error while importing files into Silhouette Studio it's most likely because you are attempting to import a zip file or you don't have Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and you're attempting to bring SVGs into your library.

Since I know you'll ask - the beautiful feather and arrow commercial use graphics are available here.

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