Print and Cut Overview and How-To

What is a Print and Cut?

Print & cut projects involve sending a project to be printed from the Silhouette Studio® program then cut from your Silhouette machine. You will use the registration marks feature to add marks to your file, print your project to your home printer, place your printed material onto a Silhouette brand cutting mat, and then load it into the Silhouette machine. The Silhouette’s optic scanner will find the registration marks on your printed material and know accordingly exactly where to cut your defined lines around the printed content. All current Silhouette models have the optical sensor to accommodate the print & cut feature. Further information on the process can be found here.

Some images offered by Silhouette America®are print & cut images, which you can identify by the “p” appearing on the thumbnail icon’s bottom left corner.

How to - Print and Cut

A Print and Cut project is a slightly more advanced process. If you are new to Silhouette, we recommend practicing with simple designs and inexpensive materials while learning. To achieve a successful cut, the following steps should be performed exactly:

  1. Open a new file and place your print & cut image in your workspace. Size it as desired
  2. Open the Page Setup panel located along the upper right-hand tool bar
  3. Adjust your page size to match exactly your printed paper size. In most cases this will be 8.5x11in.
  4. In the drop-down list next to Cutting Mat, select the mat size in use.
    • A cutting mat is recommended for a successful print and cut project, regardless of material type.
  5. Check the boxes next to Show Print Border and Show Cut Border.
  6. Click on the Registration Marks icon in the Page Setup panel
  7. In the drop-down list next to Style, choose your Silhouette model in use. Current models should use Type 1.
    • There should now be marks on three corners of the workspace. These are Registration Marks which are intended to be printed so that the Silhouette’s optic scanner can locate them and know accordingly where your cut lines are associated around your printed image.
  8. Click Restore Defaults.
    • While the registration mark positions can be adjusted and may work well, default registration marks are the only position in which we can guarantee success. If your cut is not successful, we suggest clicking the Restore Defaults button.
  9. Ensure your file is not overlapping the registration marks, hash mark areas, cut border, or print border.
  10. Print your job to your regular printer by clicking on the Print icon
  11. Load your material on your mat and into your Silhouette machine
  12. Go to the SEND menu as you would normally to cut
  13. The program will walk you through the process to continue to detect the registration marks
  14. After finding all Registration Marks, proceed to cut

If you are on Version 4 of the Silhouette Studio software, you can also use the tutorial walk-through feature under Help>Tutorials>Print & Cut.

The following are some specific resources on how to perform a print and cut project: Using the Print and Cut feature

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