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Section 10: Print & Cut

The Silhouette offers a print and cut feature. Print and cut jobs are those where you design a project in print format in the Silhouette program with cut lines associated. After designing your print images and cut lines in the program, you would then print your job to your regular printer. Once you have your printed image, you would then take your printed paper and feed it into the Silhouette to find all cut lines defined in your job to cut them out.

The Silhouette has an optic scanner that will find special marks on your printed paper (called "registration marks") and know where to cut according to where these marks have been placed.

HOW TO: Use the Print and Cut Feature
"Print and Cut" images (those that appear to have cut lines filled in with colorized images), are designed to be used in the following manner:
  1. Create a new file.
  2. Select "Letter" for Document Size and "Portrait" for the Orientation in the Document Settings window.
  3. Check the box for "Use Registration Marks" and click the "OK" button.

    You will note when your document is opened that there are photo-corner type marks on three corners of your printed paper. These are "Registration Marks". They must be present when performing a "Print and Cut" job so that the Silhouette's optic scanner can find these marks and know accordingly where you want to cut.

  4. Place your "Print and Cut" image on your screen in the Silhouette software

  5. OPTIONAL: You may select to go to the "Edit" menu and select "Registration Mark Settings". Here, we might suggest that you opt to "Print the media loading direction". This will help you know what direction to load your paper into the Silhouette when the time comes. You may only need to do this the first few times you do a "Print and Cut" job until you are comfortable with how to load your paper.

  6. Once you have your image placed on the screen to your liking, print your job to your regular printer by going to the "File" menu and selecting "Print" or click on the Print button:

    IMPORTANT: Use a full sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper because it will also print the registration marks that you need to properly cut out the design. Do not alter or move anything with your job in the Silhouette software once your image has been sent to the printer.

    You will note that when you print your project, the actual cut lines are not printed.

    This is because your printer only sees "print data"...

    while your Silhouette only sees "cut data"...

  7. Place your printed paper on the cutting mat and feed it into the Silhouette for cutting. Insert paper with the 1st and 2nd marks fed into the Silhouette first, or in the case where you have selected to print the media loading direction in step 5, in the direction indicated by the arrows and the sentence "Feed this side first" which is printed on your paper along with the Registration Marks.

    IMPORTANT: Make sure to keep the Registration Marks between the white pinch rollers on your Silhouette as your paper is loaded.

  8. Once your paper is loaded, pull up the Controller screen to cut as you would normally
  9. When clicking on "Cut" on the Controller screen, prior to cutting the Silhouette will first find each of the Registration Marks so that it knows where you want your cut lines to be according to where the Registration Marks appear.

    TROUBLESHOOTING: If the Silhouette does not find your registration marks and you receive a failure message, you may find a resolution through our online trouble-shooting by clicking here.

  10. After finding all Registration Marks, your screen will display the standard "Ready" message and the Silhouette will be ready to cut. Simply click "OK" to cut out your printed image.

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