ToothPaste

Design in your favourite vector app. Copy as SVG. Paste into Blender. That's it.

ToothPaste bridges the gap between vector design tools and Blender by letting you paste SVG content directly from your clipboard — no file saving, no import dialogs, no friction. If you work between Affinity Designer, Illustrator, Figma, or Inkscape and Blender, this extension was made for you.

Why ToothPaste?

Blender's built-in SVG importer is functional, but it treats your whole file as a single flat object. ToothPaste goes further — when you paste as Grease Pencil, your top-level groups come in as separate GP layers, and mask/clip relationships from your source file are reconstructed automatically using GP layer masks and holdout. What you drew in your design app is what you get in Blender, ready to animate.

Want to learn more about ToothPaste and how it came to be?

Read more about ToothPaste for Blender

What You Can Paste

Grease Pencil Paste SVG content as a Grease Pencil object, with each top-level group landing on its own layer. SVG Layers and groups are turned into GP groups for more control and their names are retained. Masks and clipping paths are rebuilt where possible, fill and stroke colors map to GP materials, and partial gradient support means your gradient fills aren't just dropped on the floor.

Curves & Text Paste SVG paths as native Blender Curves, or bring in SVG <text> elements as real Blender Font objects — editable, scalable, and ready to use in your scene.

Images Paste bitmap images from your clipboard, or import <image> elements embedded in your SVG. Images can land in your scene as a Mesh Plane or as a Reference object.

Grease Pencil Tools

Beyond pasting, ToothPaste includes a few handy tools for working with GP objects once they're in your scene:

• Split into GP Layers — Break a multi-layer SVG import into individual layers by its top-level groups
• Split Layers into Objects — Explode a multi-layer GP object into separate, independent GP objects

Supported Design Apps

ToothPaste is tested against real-world copy/paste workflows from:

• Affinity Designer
• Adobe Illustrator
• Figma
• Inkscape

SVG Support at a Glance

On gradients: Linear and radial gradients are detected and mapped to GP Fill materials on a best-effort basis — base and secondary colors come through, and transform/rotation/scale are approximated. Some manual tweaking may still be needed after import.

Getting Started

1. Install the extension and enable it in Edit > Preferences > Add-ons
2. Copy SVG content from your design app
3. Open the ToothPaste panel in the 3D Viewport sidebar (N key)
4. Choose your paste mode and paste location (World Origin or Cursor)

Requirements

• Blender 4.3.0 or later
• Windows, macOS, or Linux

Known Issues & Limitations

ToothPaste implements a practical subset of SVG behaviour. Here's what to expect and how to work around rough edges.

Gradients

Gradient support is partial. First and last stop colors are mapped to GP fill gradient colors, and location/rotation/scale are approximated to GP material controls — but the result won't always be visually identical to your source editor. Some manual tweaking in Blender is likely still needed after import.

Masks & Clipping

Multi-layer mask and clip reconstruction works well for common export structures, but deeply nested or transformed hierarchies can still fail depending on which editor the SVG came from. If you hit a mismatch, try flattening or simplifying the clip structure before exporting.

Text

Basic text content and position are imported correctly. Advanced layout features — tspan nesting, textPath, tracking, and baseline shifts — have limited support and may not reflect the original layout faithfully.

Transforms & Coordinates

Transform-heavy SVGs can come in with visual differences. Complex viewBox setups or mixed unit definitions may also produce scale or position mismatches. Flattening transforms before export is the most reliable fix.

Unsupported SVG Features

The following are not currently supported:

• SVG filters (blur, drop shadow, etc.)
• Pattern fills and complex paint servers beyond basic gradient mapping
• Blend modes with full SVG compositing parity
• External CSS stylesheet loading
• <symbol> / <use> workflows that rely on unresolved external defs

Performance

Very large SVGs with thousands of paths can import slowly. Clipboard size limits may also affect large or complex documents.

Tips for Best Results

1. Flatten transforms before exporting from your design app
2. Expand symbols and instances so all geometry is self-contained
3. Simplify deeply nested clips and masks where possible
4. Keep groups named and organised — ToothPaste uses top-level <g> groups to build GP layers
5. Test with small files first when working with a new editor or export style