Do you use a Paper Cutting Machine like Cricut or Silhouette?

[HC_Charlie]

Hello Artists and Makers! I hope your 2025 is already off to a very productive start. I'm looking forward to creating new items and designs for my products, and looking to invest in a paper cutter to help work a bit more smarter this year. I'm looking for any suggestions for specific brands that you've used; my specific requirements...

I use Macintosh computers, and also Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create digital designs. I'll probably be printing on an inkjet printer, so I think I'll have to add printed crop marks which will be read by the paper cutter. I currently cut all my designs using hand scissors.

I'm leaning toward a Circut machine, and I'm aware of Silhouette as another brand, but I'm open to suggestions. If you use one of these machines please join the conversation...and be sure to post a pic of some of your work. I'd love to see how you use these tools!

[TCSlaguna]

We bought a Silhouette a LONG time ago and have used it to print lettering we have on the walls. It works well for what we need. I use their provided software, but know it can work with the Adobe apps. 

The Cricut is by far the more popular one, so there will likely be more resources available. 

I remember hearing one of them went the way of a subscription model. You'll want to try to avoid that if you don't need it for daily use. 

Good luck! Let us know what you decide. 

[HC_Charlie]

Thanks @TCSlaguna I do remember something about a subscription service for one of these cutters...yeah, I'm not a fan of the subscription model, so definitely something to watch out for.

[NaturesSol]

I am a weirdo.  I have used Brother Scan&Cut since day one many years ago.  At that time they were the only ones that would scan an image for cutting.  Since, at the time, I always illustrated my own cutting files, I found this the best option.  I haven't used it in quite a while since my obsessions change on a daily basis.  I went to laser cutting which I still dabble in.  I never had to subscribe to anything.  I would print out my image, scan, and cut (LOL).  I used it for everything from boxes to cards to tags.  Never used the ink printing option since scanning brought in my entire image.  I would swear by this. I'm sorry my work in this field was very long ago and I do not have any images available.  Check into it.

[Sam_400º]

I've had a couple of the shillouette ones in the past and their software is easy, but really basic. I found it hard to do my own thing beyond simple lettering (and not wanting to pay out for the integration with other software as that was really expensive). 

I keep looking at the brother ones as they look really good. 

[rtfulk]

We have a silhouette cameo cutter and I use a Mac. I use an app called Sure Cuts A lot, the pro version is 149.00 and I think they have a free trial you can get. You can cut from the software with silhouette cutters, but you can’t from circuit has something to do with licensing issues. They also have a iOS app, but I haven’t used that.  It has a lot of features and very easy to use.

[doc_choc]

Hi @HC_Charlie we use a Cricut its a nifty bit of kit, for cutting, creasing and foiling. We use primarily or packaging design prototypes for inhouse visuals, photography, mockups etc. Helps with product approval but gets us ahead of the curve while waiting for the print run. Software is easy to use. Probably wouldn't recommend for production type volumes as it is slow and wouldn't be cost effective (something more robust would be better), but smaller projects and runs, working away in the background this would be prefect for.

[schaefferjosh]

We have used bith cricut and silhouette. Cricut is more user friendly but they have changed to charging a subscription for their software I believe. We ended up getting rid of our silhouette but kept our cricut maker/joy for making tshirts, cards, tags, etc,. We kept the cricut because of the easy UI they have. We use both windows and mac along with adobe products. We recently switched to affinity and my wife mostly uses her macbook and ipad now. Works like a charm!