I often receive questions about the Cricut, so I decided to prepare a kind of handbook of the machine, which hopefully I'll update if they required further clarification.
Start with a premise: the Cricut is the only machine of its kind on the market, there are many, with different benefits and features that will try to highlight (as far as we are aware).
In general, we can say that the cutters are in the practice of electronic plotter that instead of drawing cut.
All carry a knife, almost all use of semi adhesive pads where it is temporarily applied to the card to be cut, and many have access to the optional equipment that allow them to "draw" by installing a small pen or gel pen instead of a small blade. The Cricut can also install a bit of embossing, but I have not tried at first (series of demonstration videos here). It 's rare that these machines are able to cut thick or fibrous materials (cardboard binding, thick felt, coarse cloth).
Apart from the Cricut Imagine - which is both the printer and cutter, but use only the cartridge of the house, none of these printing machines themselves. At best, Isolated and cut out designs previously printed with other printers normal.
The first major division is its flexibility: some use only drawings supplied by the ad hoc media (Memory Card, cartridges etc.). And in this case beyond immediate disbursement for the purchase of the machine should be placed into account prices, often high, the images, which can be resized, but not modified.
These include: the Eclipse (Sizzix) just coming to market, use only the memory of coupons sold by the manufacturer.
The Baby Cricut (Provocraft): use only rugs from 6x12 inches (15x30 cm) and can not cut their own shapes drawn or downloaded from the internet, and has a USB port that would connect to a computer. Then uses the cartridges in the house.
The Imagine the Provocraft Cricut, which prints and crop, for now only uses cartridges made from the house (using both dedicated cartridges, both old Cricut cartridges) and mounted ink cartridges specifically manufactured by HP. So even the ink cartridges must be purchased by Provocraft.
Let's talk about the machines that allow the cutting of designs "do it yourself."
Silhouette / Craft Robo . They were created exclusively for cutting drawings in person or downloaded from the Internet (there are many many free and fee). It seems to be very precise in cutting, because the programs do not need an "interpreter" that elaborate on a picture and send to the machine. And just as if "printed" image, only that they cut out the outline.
Pro : some versions are fitted with a laser sensor that detects the registration marks to enable accurate contour of a figure printed. In practice the program of the machine you load the image and scale. Through the same program you print on a normal printer (in this phase, the program adds registration marks on the page
printed), then send in the cutting machine.
Against : they are not designed to cut card of a certain thickness, only thick paper or scraps, cardboard and light. In addition, the pad that lead is slightly smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, so the size of the shapes to be cut is limited. For example, the boxes that I really like drawing can be obtained only in very very small size.
The Pazzles is one of the first machine of its kind designed for the hobby market, but has advantages and disadvantages that come with being a "daughter" of a professional. It 's very expensive, heavy and cumbersome, and for this reason I rejected immediately and not so-informed. But it seems to be very powerful, easily cuts thick materials, and is precise enough in the cut. I know nothing about the possibility of cutting pictures drawn on their own, if someone can give me this information to add here.
The Cricut Expressions (Provocraft) know something more of this ... ,-D
door mats cut to 12x12 inches (30x30 cm) 12x24 inch (30x60 cm), although the actual cutting area is about half an inch less. Cut paper, cardboard often enough, cork sheets, resin rubber stamps (supplied from the house), embossing folders, cotton fiber mounted on adhesive.
No need for power adapters, because the power cord is like a notebook computer, with the adapter in the center.
allows both the use of cartridges sold by the house is to draw their own pictures or download from the Internet. The images can be resized cartridge (in fractions of inches or millimeters) and can be applied effects (Blackout / Shadow / Shadow Blackout at all, other special effects on individual cartridges).
Optional features include:
- gel pens to write / draw
- bits embossing
- special blades for cutting thick materials
- media to create personalized embossing folders (such as Cuttlebug)
- sheets of stamps to be cut from resin
Warning: You must have at least one cartridge (any) because the first thing the machine does boot and check its presence. Moreover, the machine is usually sold with a cartridge already but attentive to the online auction, some just sell the car.
to use / need a custom program cuts draw-bridge. Design Studio is from this point of view totally unnecessary. Only serves to "locate" on the mat one or more images to be cropped, but these images have come from the cartridges already bought. It does not allow the importation and custom cutting files. In my opinion a waste of money, but of course is a personal opinion.
Among other things, is misleading because the software will show all images and fonts available in all the cartridges manufactured by the company. It 's a way to entice people to buy cartridges: remember that in reality it can send to cut only through the images in the cartridges Buy, and not the other figures showing the list.
Sure Cuts A Lot 2 (SCAL2). Allows the import and cut any font installed on your computer, personal image (SVG files) and application to these images of the effects typical of Cricut (Shadow / Blackout / Blackout Shadow) with possibilities for further customization, rotate, flip, resize, functions filled with pictures (to maximize the use of the sheet to be cut), level management (to show or hide parts of the image (this is useful because the Cricut cuts only the visible parts and this allows to cut a part, change settings of the blade and then cut to another, like the lines I use to scratch the folds in the boxes).
I put in the right column a Blink Sure Cuts a Lot 2, you can download free software to try and see if you like.
Possibly, if you decide to buy it, could you please buy it through my blink? Thank you very much ...
