Skip to content

How it works

Four steps, one file

The whole loop is upload, set, check, download. Most jobs take under a minute; the checking is where the value is.

  1. Upload the artwork

    PDF, PNG, JPEG, WebP or TIFF, up to 200 MB. A transparent background is read straight from the alpha channel. A white background gets thresholded instead, which works but is less exact — see file requirements.

  2. Choose the cut

    Pick a shape and give it dimensions, or let it trace the silhouette. Add folds by count, spacing or panel widths. Set your blade offset once in Settings and every new job starts there.

  3. Read the preflight

    Effective resolution, the artwork and page sizes, how many subpaths the cut is made of and how many of them close, and the layer names — every figure read back off the finished PDF. Warnings, not blocks: you decide.

  4. Download production PDFs

    Cut path on its own separation, folds on theirs, layers named, and the page size in the filename. Registration marks are added at your RIP, not here.

The tuner on a traced leaf, with the check-before-printing block beside it reading artwork 18.6 by 30 cm, page 21 by 32 cm, 113 dpi and one closed path
Step three: the preflight is read before anything is downloaded.

What comes out

Separations

PlateNameCMYK
CutCutContour0/100/0/0
ScoreCutcontourScore100/100/0/0

Overprint off. Both names are fixed: your RIP matches on the exact word, so neither is offered as a setting. The Illustrator layers that share them are cosmetic and renameable at the command line.

Structure

Artwork and cut path sit on separate named layers, as siblings rather than one nested in the other, so the operator can toggle the cut off to check the print. A file with folds gets a third layer for the scores. Every cut path closes; only a score line is ever open.

The shape screen: a tall banner with a rounded outline at a 4 cm radius, two horizontal fold lines across it, and a bar reading three paths, two folds, panels 60 by 60 by 60 cm, stroke 3 pt and three layer names
Choosing the cut: a rounded outline with two folds across it, set by number rather than traced.

Worth knowing

Where judgement still belongs to you

Blade offset

Zero offset means the cut sits exactly on the artwork edge, and blade drift then shows as a white sliver or a clipped edge. The right number comes from your cutter and your substrate. Set it once under Settings → Print defaults and every new job starts there.

Interior holes

Just because a gap can be cut doesn't mean it should be. A thin arm bridged at two points tears in transit. Cutting the gaps a silhouette encloses is a command-line pass, and it measures the material left around each one and refuses anything under 3 mm — but the call is still yours.

Fur and soft edges

Watercolour and fur fade out rather than stopping. Where the cut lands in that fade is a look decision. The threshold is a control, not a fixed value.

See it on your own artwork

No card, and nothing to pay: billing is not switched on yet.

Start free See how it works