Why your traced letters lose their holes

A counter is the enclosed space inside a letterform. The hole in O, the triangle in A, the loops in B and g, the gap in R. Typographers have a word for it because it matters: a letter is defined as much by its negative space as by its strokes.

In a vector file, that negative space has to be represented as an actual absence. The usual mechanism is a compound path: one shape containing another, with a fill rule telling the renderer which regions get painted. Done correctly, you get a genuine hole and whatever sits behind shows through.

Many auto-tracers work by finding regions of similar colour and outlining each one. A black O on a white background has two such regions: the black ring, and the white disc in the middle.

So you get two shapes. A black ring, correct. And a white disc sitting on top of it.

On a white page these are indistinguishable from the correct result. The white disc blends into the white background and your eye reads a hole.

It is not a hole. It's a white object.

On a coloured background. Drop the logo onto anything other than white and the discs appear as pale blobs. This is the version people catch in time, usually about four minutes before a presentation.

On a cutting machine. The laser or blade does not care about colour. It sees two closed paths and cuts both. The ring gets cut, the disc gets cut, and the disc is now a loose piece of material lying on your bed. Sometimes that's the intended result. Often it means the middle of your O is gone.

In a browser or viewer: put the SVG on a coloured rectangle. If the counters change colour with the background, they're real holes. If they stay white, they're objects.

In an editor: click the inside of a letter. If nothing selects, the hole is a hole. If a shape selects, it isn't.

In code: open the SVG in a text editor. A properly built counter is one <path> whose d attribute contains both contours, with the fill rule doing the rest. Two separate <path> elements with different fills is the broken version. Note that two subpaths alone don't guarantee a hole: with fill-rule="evenodd", nested contours alternate between filled and empty, while with nonzero the direction each contour is drawn in decides the outcome.

Boolean subtraction. Select the outer shape and the inner one, then subtract. In Figma it's under boolean operations; in Inkscape it's Path then Difference; in Illustrator it's the Pathfinder minus-front. This is the most reliable route.

Rebuild the compound path. If the subtraction misbehaves, combine the outer and inner contours into a single path (Path then Combine in Inkscape, Object then Compound Path then Make in Illustrator) and then check the fill rule. With evenodd, nested contours alternate filled and empty. With nonzero, contour direction matters, and reversing the inner contour is often what fixes a stubborn case. Test on a coloured background and inspect the exported file rather than trusting the editor's preview.

Try a transparent source. If your original has a transparent background rather than a white one, some tracers produce the holes correctly first time, because there's no white region to outline. This depends on the tool and its alpha handling, so treat it as worth trying rather than a guaranteed fix.

Worth saying: a white-filled counter isn't always a mistake. If the logo only ever appears on white, in print on white stock, and nothing gets cut, the file works. It's not the sign of a broken tool.

It becomes a problem the moment the file leaves that context, and files always leave their context. The version you sent to the printer is the version someone will later drop onto a navy slide.

Put it on three backgrounds: white, a mid-tone, and black. Ten seconds, and it catches every counter in the file.

If you're cutting letterforms as a single piece, remember that real counters need bridges. The centre of an O is physically unsupported once you cut the hole. Add small tabs connecting it to the ring, or plan for two pieces. The laser cutting guide goes through the rest of the pre-cut checks.

Tracer is free for SVG, and the background test takes less time than reading this paragraph.