Silhouette software comparison updated

It’s been over a year since I visited the details of each software package available to drive a Silhouette cutter. There’s still no clear winner for everyone, because so much depends on what you want to do, how much learning curve you are willing to endure and how much you want to spend, not to mention personal preference. I have made a radical update to my comparison chart to help you choose what’s right for you among Silhouette’s own software, Make the Cut or Sure Cuts a Lot. Funtime Pro is also an option now, but I’ve not had a copy to compare so the items on the chart in that column are provisional at best. Hoping for some input from Funtime users on this. I know many of you are like me, and already use more than one of these software packages. In that case, I hope this chart will help you find the best one for the task at hand.

In addition, I’ve added a detailed chart on file formats. Most of you can probably skip this, but if you are interested in being able to cut a particular file format (or a lot of them) then this may help you make a decision. This information may also be helpful to designers choosing which file formats to offer.

(Click each image to open/download the corresponding PDF)

Note: this chart was revised 3/24/13 to include new features in Make-the-Cut v4.6.0

Sharpie checklist

I love Sharpies, but I am not too impressed with the Sharpie web site. Oh, it’s cute, but a little thin on the info. For instance, there is not a list of colors. You can only see each individual color as you mouse over it <sigh>. So I moused all over the site, writing down each color as it was revealed and thought some of you might want to have a copy of my Sharpie Checklist, too. I made both a checkbox and a space for hand coloring in case you want to test colors you don’t own yet (Office Depot is a great place for this since they have a bunch of individual Sharpies with the colors labeled). The column on the far left is my attempt to match up the Sharpie colors with the Bic Mark-It colors using an untrained eye and the Sharpies I could get my hands on for side by side comparison. In general, the Sharpies write brighter than the Bics, so there aren’t as many close matches as you’d expect.

A big disadvantage to Sharpies is that the color name does not appear on the marker itself and sometimes not on the package either so it can be difficult to tell what color Sharpie you hold in your hand. My next step is to label my Sharpies with their color names. Hmmm, I wonder if you can write on a Sharpie with a Sharpie?

Oh, and if you are looking for a Bic Mark-It Color List along with cross reference to Copic and Prismacolor colors, you can get that from Lindsay over at The Frugal Crafter blog.

SCAL and MTC both get major updates

Craftedge released on update of SureCutsALot that brings Mac users up to parity with their Windows counterparts and also adds such features as text on a path, open path cutting and line styles.

Make the Cut also released version 2.2.0 which features a rebuild of the interface, layers capability the ability to cut to a number of other cutters besides the Cricut through a full color print function. This version of Make the Cut also features the long promised and somewhat controversial feature that allows owners of Cricut Design Studio to back up the images in the carts they own to SVG files.

My comparison chart has been updated. Get the PDF version here.

Which vinyl do I need?

This is such a common question among diecutter users that I made a flow chart to answer the question. Now get out there and cut some vinyl!

Download the PDF version here.

Wordle font chart

I am a big fan of Wordle.net and I made myself a cheat sheet so I could see what the fonts look like. It’s not pretty but it gets the job done and I’m sharing. View/download the PDF version here Enjoy!

Click image to enlarge