Print Then Cut is the Cricut feature that prints a design on your home printer and then cuts precisely around it. It is how stickers, printed labels, planner pieces, and full-color paper embellishments get made without cutting each shape by hand.
It is also the feature that goes wrong most often, almost always for one of three reasons: the material is too dark for the sensor, the machine has never been calibrated, or the design was uploaded as the wrong file type. All three are quick to fix.
What Print Then Cut actually does
Design Space sends your design to your printer surrounded by a black registration rectangle. You load the printed sheet onto a mat, and the machine's optical sensor finds that rectangle to work out exactly where the design sits. It then cuts around the outline.
The sensor is the part everyone forgets. It has to see the registration marks, which is why the material you print on matters more than any other setting.
Setting it up
- Add your image to the canvas, then set its Operation to Print Then Cut in the top toolbar.
- Size the design. Everything, registration marks included, has to fit the printable area, so leave margin.
- Click Make It. Design Space shows the printed sheet with the black border around it.
- Click Send to Printer. Turn on Use System Dialog if you want to choose paper type and quality, which is worth doing on sticker paper.
- Print, then load the sheet onto the mat in the top left corner, squared to the guides.
- Choose your material and let the machine scan and cut.
The size limit
The printable area is smaller than a sheet of paper because the registration marks take up room. On most machines this has been 9.25 by 6.75 inches, and Cricut has raised it on newer machines and firmware. Design Space shows the current limit for your machine when a design is too large, so treat the app as the authority rather than any number written online, this one included.
If a design will not fit, split it into two Print Then Cut sheets rather than shrinking it past the point where fine detail survives.
Materials that work, and one that does not
White or very light material is what the sensor is built for. Standard white cardstock, matte sticker paper, and printable vinyl all scan reliably.
Dark, patterned, glossy, or metallic material is where scanning fails. Glossy stock reflects the sensor's light back at it and kraft or colored stock swallows the registration marks. If you need a design on dark paper, print on white sticker paper and stick that down instead of fighting the scan.
Good light helps more than people expect. A machine in a dim corner misreads marks that it would find easily on a bright desk.
Calibration
Calibration is the single highest-value ten minutes here, and most people skip it. In Design Space open the menu, choose Calibration, then Print Then Cut, and follow the printed test. It teaches the machine the exact offset between where your printer puts ink and where the blade lands.
If your cuts are consistently off by the same small amount in the same direction, that is an uncalibrated machine, not a design problem.
File formats
Use a PNG with a transparent background for Print Then Cut. The transparency is what tells Design Space where the cut line goes, so the machine cuts the shape rather than a rectangle around it.
A JPG has no transparency, so it will print and cut as a box. An SVG is a vector meant for cutting directly and does not need Print Then Cut at all unless you deliberately want a printed fill. Our format guide covers which file to reach for and why.
Every download here ships SVG, PNG, DXF, and JPG together, so the PNG you need for Print Then Cut is already in the folder.
When the cut lands in the wrong place
Off by a consistent small amount. Calibrate. This is the fix nine times out of ten.
Off by a lot, or wildly wrong. The sheet is misaligned on the mat. Load it in the top left corner, square to the ruler guides, and press it down flat. A curled corner throws the whole scan.
The machine will not scan at all. The material is too dark, too glossy, or the room is too dim. Try white matte stock under better light.
Printer scaling. Make sure your printer is not set to Fit to Page or Scale to Fit. Any resizing at print time breaks the relationship between the marks and the design. Print at 100 percent.
Making stickers
Stickers are the most popular use of the feature, and the workflow is simple: a PNG with a transparent background, matte printable sticker paper, and Print Then Cut set to a kiss cut if your machine supports it so the backing stays intact.
If you want a white border around each sticker, add an offset in Design Space before you print. Our sticker cut files are built for this, and you can test the whole workflow on a free SVG before committing sticker paper to it.
Frequently asked questions
What size can Print Then Cut handle? The printable area is smaller than the sheet because the registration marks need room. It has commonly been 9.25 by 6.75 inches, and Cricut has increased it on newer machines and firmware. Design Space will tell you the current limit for your machine, so trust the app over any fixed number.
Why is my Cricut cutting in the wrong place on a printed sheet? Almost always calibration. Run the Print Then Cut calibration from the Design Space menu. If it is wildly off rather than slightly off, the printed sheet is misaligned on the mat, so load it squarely in the top left corner and press it flat.
Can I use Print Then Cut on dark or patterned paper? Not reliably. The optical sensor needs to see the black registration marks against a light background, and dark, glossy, or patterned stock defeats it. Print on white sticker paper and apply that to the dark surface instead.
What file type should I use for Print Then Cut? A PNG with a transparent background. The transparency tells Design Space where to cut. A JPG has no transparency so it cuts as a rectangle, and an SVG is meant for direct cutting rather than printing.
Do I need a special printer? No. Any home inkjet or laser printer works. Print quality affects how the sticker looks, not whether the cut lands correctly, and matte paper generally scans better than glossy.
Why does my printed design come out the wrong size? Your printer is resizing it. Turn off Fit to Page or Scale to Fit and print at 100 percent, otherwise the registration marks no longer match the design and every cut will be off.
