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.