We’ve done a series of posts (1, 2) now on the contour cropping possibilities available through MS PowerPoint and your vinyl cutting software.
Now see for yourself in this video run-through of the process.
Grab figures out of photos and make vinyl silhouettes or “ink style drawings”.
It’s easy, cheap to do, looks great, and your customers or family members will love it!
Did you ever want to isolate a shape in an image and cut just it out of vinyl?
It’s easy enough if you have some image editing skills and Photoshop or other high-end design software. The following tutorial is for the rest of us. Using just MS Powerpoint (included in the MS Office software suite) and your vinyl cutting software (in this case VinylMaster Cut), you can grab figures from photos and make cool vinyl silhouettes.
Step 1:
Select your image.
Step 2:
Open the image in PowerPoint.
Step 3:
Select the crop function from the “Format” menu.
Step 4:
Draw a box around the figure you want isolated and crop the image.
Step 5:
Select the “Remove Background” button. Draw a box around the figure you want to isolate from the background.
Step 6:
Select the “Mark Areas to Keep” button and you can draw segments using your mouse cursor around the parts of the image you’d like to keep. Once you have what you want, use the “Mark Areas to Remove” function to draw segments around the areas of the background you’d like to remove.
Step 7:
Once you have the isolated figure with all unwanted background removed, select the “Color” button and under the “Recolor” sub menu, select “Greyscale”. This will aid with creating a vector outline later. After the image has been rendered into greyscale, save your figure as an image file.
Step 8:
Open the image file in your vinyl cutting software. Vectorize it such that the figure is mostly solidly filled in. You may have to adjust your color settings to get as close as you can to a single solid-filled vector outline.
Step 9:
Now create a contour cut path around the figure. You can now send this to the cutter and you have a silhouette of the figure you isolated, in whatever color you want.
Tune in next time and see how great a simple black vinyl silhouette looks like on a plain white substrate. Kind of like an ink drawing! Good luck!
New, from the same folks who brought you crafting action heroes like the Silhouette Cameo and Portrait, meet Curio (projected to be available August 2015 – available for pre-order at USCutter NOW!). This all-purpose crafting tool does everything but fight crime.
Add some new moves to your super-crafter toolbelt like paper embossing, metal etching, leather stippling, deep cutting of foam and vinyl, and scoring. The new Curio can do everything the Cameo can, but it is not as versatile a cutter. It won’t accept materials larger than 8.5” x 12” with the base upgrade option, whereas the Cameo will cut a width of 12” by a 10 foot roll.
The Curio is cast as more of a trusty sidekick to the Cameo, with some pretty incredible features of its own.
Its dual carriage allows you to perform multiple functions at once, mixing and matching from the list of possible Curio accessories. Stipple and Ink or Emboss and Score in one pass. Contour cut around printed images.
And now, with a higher 5mm clearance and adjustable base with removable platforms, you can deep cut thicker materials than ever.
Work with leather, foam, metal, and even wood. Emboss soft papers and vellums for professional invitations and polished business cards.
With this dynamic duo at your disposal, your desktop or craft room can soon be your homebase for unlocking all your crafting superpowers. Pre-order yours today!
