Print and cut, and the marks the machine looks for

Two machines, one file

A print-and-cut job is printed on a large-format printer onto adhesive vinyl, then moved to a cutting plotter which cuts around the printed artwork. Stickers, labels, decals, shaped window graphics, floor markers.

The problem is alignment. The plotter has no idea where the print landed on the roll, and a 1 mm error around a printed sticker is obvious.

The solution is registration marks: small printed targets that the plotter finds with an optical sensor before it cuts, using them to calculate the print’s position, rotation and any stretch.

How the marks work

The printer prints three or four marks (usually small squares, crosses or right-angle corners) at known positions around the artwork. The plotter’s sensor is driven over each in turn, detects the edge, and builds a transform.

• Two or three marks give position, rotation and scale, so stretch along the roll is corrected.
• Four marks add a warp correction on both axes.
• Segmented marks along a long job let the machine re-register periodically, so a 3 m banner does not drift at the far end.

The marks must be: the shape and size the machine expects, at the distance it expects from the artwork, printed in solid black on an unprinted white area, with a quiet zone of bare white around each. Artwork touching a mark, or a coloured background under it, stops the sensor finding it.

The mark specification comes from the machine. Roland, Graphtec, Mimaki and Summa all differ. Your cutting software (VersaWorks, CutStudio, FlexiSign, Onyx) places them correctly. Never draw them by hand.

The cut line is a spot colour

This is the convention that matters, and it is the same across the industry:

Draw the cut path as an outline with no fill, colour it with a spot swatch named CutContour, and set it to overprint.

The RIP recognises the name, does not print it, and passes the geometry to the cutter. Other names are used (Thru-cut, Kiss-cut, CutLine, Crease, Perf) and the shop will tell you which because it is configured in their RIP.

In Illustrator: Swatches ▸ New ▸ Colour Type: Spot, name it exactly CutContour, and use 100% magenta as its appearance so you can see it. In CorelDRAW: define a spot colour with the same name. In Scribus: Edit ▸ Colours ▸ New ▸ tick Spot Colour. Inkscape cannot make a true spot, which is why print-and-cut work is one of the places the free chain needs Scribus for the export.

Bleed for a contour cut

A contour cut is not a guillotine cut, and it still needs bleed. The plotter is accurate to a few tenths of a millimetre, plus whatever the registration leaves.

• 1 to 2 mm of bleed beyond the cut line, on all sides.
• Keep text and important detail at least 3 mm inside the cut line.
• Round the corners of the cut path rather than leaving sharp points: a sharp corner lifts at the edge and the sticker peels.

Blade offset, and why corners come out rounded

The blade is not at the centre of its holder; it trails behind, swivelling to follow the direction of travel. That distance is the blade offset, typically 0.25 to 0.5 mm.

The machine compensates by overcutting slightly at corners. If the offset is set wrong for the blade fitted:

• Too small: corners come out rounded, because the blade has not finished turning.
• Too large: corners overshoot, leaving small tails past each corner.

This is the operator’s calibration, not your file, but recognising the symptom tells you whose problem it is. Every machine has a test-cut pattern for setting it.

Kiss cut and through cut

• Kiss cut: through the vinyl, not the backing. Stickers on a sheet.
• Through cut: through everything. Individual die-cut stickers.

A sheet of stickers usually wants both: kiss-cut shapes and a through-cut around the whole sheet, on two differently named spot layers. Say which is which in the covering note.

Before you send

1. Cut path on its own layer, named spot colour, no fill, overprint on.
2. Artwork bleeds 2 mm past the cut path everywhere.
3. Nothing important within 3 mm of the cut.
4. Corners of the cut path rounded.
5. Registration marks left to the RIP.
6. The finished size and the quantity per sheet in the filename.