{"course":{"slug":"vector-and-print","title":"Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print","level":"beginner","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"paths-that-cut-and-stitch","title":"The paid vector work is mostly machines, not posters","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/paths-that-cut-and-stitch","position":65,"of":73,"minutes":10,"answer":"For any machine (plotter, needle, laser, screen) the file must describe a physical action, which means closed paths, outlined strokes, welded overlaps and a minimum feature size the material can actually hold.","keyIdea":"For any machine (plotter, needle, laser, screen) the file must describe a physical action, which means closed paths, outlined strokes, welded overlaps and a minimum feature size the material can actually hold."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## Where the money actually is\n\nDesigners imagine vector work means logos and posters. A great deal of the paid work is preparing files for machines: a plotter that cuts vinyl, a needle that stitches thread, a laser that burns a line, a screen that pushes ink. The mark is the same, the constraints are completely different, and almost nobody teaches them, which is why the work pays.\n\nThe through-line: **the file tells the machine what to physically do.** Not what to look like.\n\n## Cutting plotters and vinyl\n\nA plotter drags a blade along your paths: signage, vehicle graphics, shop shutters, stickers. Roland and Graphtec at the top, and many cheaper machines running ArtCut, SignMaster or FlexiSign. What that means for the file:\n\n- **No fills, no gradients, no images.** The machine cuts outlines; colour comes from the vinyl you load.\n- **Strokes must be converted to outline objects.** A stroke is a rendering instruction, not a shape. The plotter follows the path's centreline, so a 0.5 pt outline around a letter is cut as a single line through the middle of it. Convert first: **Ctrl+Shift+Q** in CorelDRAW, Object > Path > Outline Stroke in Illustrator, **Ctrl+Alt+C** in Inkscape.\n- **Overlapping shapes must be welded.** Two overlapping letters are two closed paths, so the blade cuts the buried edges too and script lettering falls apart.\n- **Weeding sets the minimum size.** A person picks the waste vinyl out by hand with a hook, and anything under about 2 mm tears while weeded. Hairline serifs and tiny counters are not a stylistic risk here, they are physically impossible.\n- **Counters come out loose.** The hole in an \"a\" is a separate piece held in place by the application tape, not by the design, so small counters get lost.\n\nFree path: Inkscape exports SVG and DXF, which most cutting software imports, and **Inkcut**, a free extension, drives many plotters directly.\n\n## Embroidery digitising\n\n**Embroidery does not use vectors at all.** The machine reads a stitch file (DST (Tajima), PES (Brother), EXP (Melco), JEF (Janome)) storing needle positions, stitch types, jumps, trims and colour stops. Your vector is a reference the digitiser works over, deciding stitch direction, density, underlay and pull compensation. It is a skilled trade of its own, and units in Surat, Tiruppur and Ludhiana do it all day. What it means for your design:\n\n- Detail below about **1.5 mm** disappears into the thread, and text below **5 mm cap height** turns to a smudge.\n- **No gradients.** Colours become a short list of thread codes from one brand's chart.\n- Fabric **pulls** as the needle works, so the design distorts and the digitiser widens shapes slightly across the pull direction. Knitwear pulls more than woven cloth.\n- Every colour change is a machine stop, so five colours cost more than two.\n\nFree tool: **Ink/Stitch**, an Inkscape extension that produces usable DST and PES files. It will not replace a good digitiser on a complex chest logo, but for a simple one- or two-colour mark it works.\n\n## Laser and CNC\n\nVector paths become toolpaths. A common laser convention is a hairline red stroke for cut and black fill for engrave, but it varies by machine and driver, so **ask the operator rather than trusting any rule you read**, including this one.\n\nTwo things are always true:\n\n- **A cut path must be closed.** An open path leaves the piece attached.\n- **Kerf.** The beam or bit removes material as it travels (roughly 0.1 to 0.3 mm for a laser, the full bit diameter for a CNC router), so an interior hole comes out that much larger and a tab that much smaller. If two pieces must slot together, design the clearance in rather than drawing them touching exactly.\n\nFree path: Inkscape plus Gcodetools or another CAM extension. **LightBurn** is paid, cheap and one-off, and what most small laser shops run.\n\n## Screen printing separations\n\nEach colour is a separate screen, so the design is built as a few flat colours from the start. That constraint is why so much good T-shirt and poster art looks the way it does.\n\n- **Separations**: one plate per colour. For flat spot colours, put each colour on its own layer in Inkscape and export the layers.\n- **Halftones** for tonal areas, at a line screen the mesh can hold: ask the printer, a coarse mesh cannot hold a fine screen.\n- **Underbase** on dark garments: a white layer printed first so the colours read on top. It must be **choked**, shrunk slightly, so it does not peek out around the edges.\n- **Registration marks** on every separation, and **trapping**: adjacent colours overlapped slightly so misregistration shows an overlap, not a gap.\n\nSimulated-process separations are usually done in Photoshop with channels. **Photopea** does the same in a browser, free, on a laptop that could never run Photoshop.\n\n## Large format and signage\n\nVector all the way to the printer, and the RIP handles resolution. Check minimum text size at the real viewing distance, and ask the question people forget: **hoardings are usually printed in panels and joined.** Find out where the seams fall and keep faces, text and the logo off them.\n\n## The habits that make all five work\n\nBefore any file goes to a machine:\n\n1. All strokes converted to outlines, all text converted to curves\n2. All overlapping shapes welded, all cut paths closed\n3. No stray objects outside the artboard, no hidden layers, no zero-length paths\n4. Node count sane: run a simplify pass over any traced artwork\n5. Units and finished size in the filename: `shutter-sign-1200x600mm-CUT.svg`\n6. A phone call to the operator before you send\n\nThat last one is not padding. The person running the machine knows their material, their kerf, their mesh and their limits, and five minutes with them prevents most reprints. They are also, in this trade, the people who hand out the next job."},"check":{"question":"Artwork goes to a vinyl cutter: text with a 0.5 pt outline stroke, and several overlapping letters. The blade cuts through the middle of the letters, and the thin outlines tear during weeding. What went wrong at the file stage?","options":[{"text":"The file was in CMYK, and a cutter needs a single named spot colour to know which contour to follow.","correct":false,"tempting":"Colour can assign tools on some machines, but it cannot explain a blade cutting straight through the middle of a letter."},{"text":"The strokes were never converted to outline objects and the overlapping letters were never welded, so the plotter followed each stroke's centreline and the buried edges of the overlaps as real paths; and the resulting hairline shapes were too thin to weed.","correct":true},{"text":"The artwork was too low in resolution for the cutter's tracking and should have been exported at 300 dpi.","correct":false,"tempting":"Applies a raster measure to a path-following machine that has no resolution at all."},{"text":"The vinyl was the wrong weight for the design, so the file was fine and the material choice caused the tearing.","correct":false,"tempting":"Moves a file-preparation fault onto the material, and does not account for the blade cutting through the letters."}]},"prev":{"slug":"sending-the-job","title":"The covering note, and the file a shop can open","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/sending-the-job"},"next":{"slug":"vinyl-cutting-end-to-end","title":"A vinyl job from file to wall","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/vinyl-cutting-end-to-end"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'The paid vector work is mostly machines, not posters', in Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/paths-that-cut-and-stitch (Accessed: 31 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"The paid vector work is mostly machines, not posters","courseTitle":"Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed","module":{"index":8,"slug":"machines-that-make-things","title":"Machines that cut, stitch and burn"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"For any machine (plotter, needle, laser, screen) the file must describe a physical action, which means closed paths, outlined strokes, welded overlaps and a minimum feature size the material can actually hold.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"where-the-money-actually-is","runs":[{"text":"Where the money actually is"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Designers imagine vector work means logos and posters. A great deal of the paid work is preparing files for machines: a plotter that cuts vinyl, a needle that stitches thread, a laser that burns a line, a screen that pushes ink. The mark is the same, the constraints are completely different, and almost nobody teaches them, which is why the work pays."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The through-line: "},{"text":"the file tells the machine what to physically do.","b":true},{"text":" Not what to look like."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"cutting-plotters-and-vinyl","runs":[{"text":"Cutting plotters and vinyl"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"A plotter drags a blade along your paths: signage, vehicle graphics, shop shutters, stickers. Roland and Graphtec at the top, and many cheaper machines running ArtCut, SignMaster or FlexiSign. What that means for the file:"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"No fills, no gradients, no images.","b":true},{"text":" The machine cuts outlines; colour comes from the vinyl you load."}],[{"text":"Strokes must be converted to outline objects.","b":true},{"text":" A stroke is a rendering instruction, not a shape. The plotter follows the path’s centreline, so a 0.5 pt outline around a letter is cut as a single line through the middle of it. Convert first: "},{"text":"Ctrl+Shift+Q","b":true},{"text":" in CorelDRAW, Object > Path > Outline Stroke in Illustrator, "},{"text":"Ctrl+Alt+C","b":true},{"text":" in Inkscape."}],[{"text":"Overlapping shapes must be welded.","b":true},{"text":" Two overlapping letters are two closed paths, so the blade cuts the buried edges too and script lettering falls apart."}],[{"text":"Weeding sets the minimum size.","b":true},{"text":" A person picks the waste vinyl out by hand with a hook, and anything under about 2 mm tears while weeded. Hairline serifs and tiny counters are not a stylistic risk here, they are physically impossible."}],[{"text":"Counters come out loose.","b":true},{"text":" The hole in an “a” is a separate piece held in place by the application tape, not by the design, so small counters get lost."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Free path: Inkscape exports SVG and DXF, which most cutting software imports, and "},{"text":"Inkcut","b":true},{"text":", a free extension, drives many plotters directly."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"embroidery-digitising","runs":[{"text":"Embroidery digitising"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Embroidery does not use vectors at all.","b":true},{"text":" The machine reads a stitch file (DST (Tajima), PES (Brother), EXP (Melco), JEF (Janome)) storing needle positions, stitch types, jumps, trims and colour stops. Your vector is a reference the digitiser works over, deciding stitch direction, density, underlay and pull compensation. It is a skilled trade of its own, and units in Surat, Tiruppur and Ludhiana do it all day. What it means for your design:"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Detail below about "},{"text":"1.5 mm","b":true},{"text":" disappears into the thread, and text below "},{"text":"5 mm cap height","b":true},{"text":" turns to a smudge."}],[{"text":"No gradients.","b":true},{"text":" Colours become a short list of thread codes from one brand’s chart."}],[{"text":"Fabric "},{"text":"pulls","b":true},{"text":" as the needle works, so the design distorts and the digitiser widens shapes slightly across the pull direction. Knitwear pulls more than woven cloth."}],[{"text":"Every colour change is a machine stop, so five colours cost more than two."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Free tool: "},{"text":"Ink/Stitch","b":true},{"text":", an Inkscape extension that produces usable DST and PES files. It will not replace a good digitiser on a complex chest logo, but for a simple one- or two-colour mark it works."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"laser-and-cnc","runs":[{"text":"Laser and CNC"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Vector paths become toolpaths. A common laser convention is a hairline red stroke for cut and black fill for engrave, but it varies by machine and driver, so "},{"text":"ask the operator rather than trusting any rule you read","b":true},{"text":", including this one."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Two things are always true:"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"A cut path must be closed.","b":true},{"text":" An open path leaves the piece attached."}],[{"text":"Kerf.","b":true},{"text":" The beam or bit removes material as it travels (roughly 0.1 to 0.3 mm for a laser, the full bit diameter for a CNC router), so an interior hole comes out that much larger and a tab that much smaller. If two pieces must slot together, design the clearance in rather than drawing them touching exactly."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Free path: Inkscape plus Gcodetools or another CAM extension. "},{"text":"LightBurn","b":true},{"text":" is paid, cheap and one-off, and what most small laser shops run."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"screen-printing-separations","runs":[{"text":"Screen printing separations"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Each colour is a separate screen, so the design is built as a few flat colours from the start. That constraint is why so much good T-shirt and poster art looks the way it does."}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Separations","b":true},{"text":": one plate per colour. For flat spot colours, put each colour on its own layer in Inkscape and export the layers."}],[{"text":"Halftones","b":true},{"text":" for tonal areas, at a line screen the mesh can hold: ask the printer, a coarse mesh cannot hold a fine screen."}],[{"text":"Underbase","b":true},{"text":" on dark garments: a white layer printed first so the colours read on top. It must be "},{"text":"choked","b":true},{"text":", shrunk slightly, so it does not peek out around the edges."}],[{"text":"Registration marks","b":true},{"text":" on every separation, and "},{"text":"trapping","b":true},{"text":": adjacent colours overlapped slightly so misregistration shows an overlap, not a gap."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Simulated-process separations are usually done in Photoshop with channels. "},{"text":"Photopea","b":true},{"text":" does the same in a browser, free, on a laptop that could never run Photoshop."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"large-format-and-signage","runs":[{"text":"Large format and signage"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Vector all the way to the printer, and the RIP handles resolution. Check minimum text size at the real viewing distance, and ask the question people forget: "},{"text":"hoardings are usually printed in panels and joined.","b":true},{"text":" Find out where the seams fall and keep faces, text and the logo off them."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-habits-that-make-all-five-work","runs":[{"text":"The habits that make all five work"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Before any file goes to a machine:"}]},{"t":"ol","start":1,"items":[[{"text":"All strokes converted to outlines, all text converted to curves"}],[{"text":"All overlapping shapes welded, all cut paths closed"}],[{"text":"No stray objects outside the artboard, no hidden layers, no zero-length paths"}],[{"text":"Node count sane: run a simplify pass over any traced artwork"}],[{"text":"Units and finished size in the filename: "},{"text":"shutter-sign-1200x600mm-CUT.svg","code":true}],[{"text":"A phone call to the operator before you send"}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That last one is not padding. The person running the machine knows their material, their kerf, their mesh and their limits, and five minutes with them prevents most reprints. They are also, in this trade, the people who hand out the next job."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"Artwork goes to a vinyl cutter: text with a 0.5 pt outline stroke, and several overlapping letters. The blade cuts through the middle of the letters, and the thin outlines tear during weeding. What went wrong at the file stage?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"The file was in CMYK, and a cutter needs a single named spot colour to know which contour to follow."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Colour can assign tools on some machines, but it cannot explain a blade cutting straight through the middle of a letter."}]},{"text":[{"text":"The strokes were never converted to outline objects and the overlapping letters were never welded, so the plotter followed each stroke’s centreline and the buried edges of the overlaps as real paths; and the resulting hairline shapes were too thin to weed."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null},{"text":[{"text":"The artwork was too low in resolution for the cutter’s tracking and should have been exported at 300 dpi."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Applies a raster measure to a path-following machine that has no resolution at all."}]},{"text":[{"text":"The vinyl was the wrong weight for the design, so the file was fine and the material choice caused the tearing."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Moves a file-preparation fault onto the material, and does not account for the blade cutting through the letters."}]}],"order":[3,1,2,0],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"sending-the-job","title":"The covering note, and the file a shop can open","minutes":8},"next":{"slug":"vinyl-cutting-end-to-end","title":"A vinyl job from file to wall","minutes":8}}}