#sticker cutting

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

[purple-pigeon-art]

Always nice when things work out. My printer messed up this sheet just a little bit because it occasionally struggles to grab glossy paper. It printed my registration marks at the veeeery top of the page but i was still able to get it to cut the stickers :D

[starflungwaddledee]

alas, it seems the christmas mystery shall remain unsolved 🎁 happy holidays!

[bamsara]

Cult of the Lamb Mini - Demon Sticker sheet I made (+ Nari & Lamb because I felt like the sheet had too much empty space so they're mini stickers too) And our girl Heket🐸

Made for Patreons for April. These will be available on my KoFi shop soon maybe >.>

[cetakstikermurahkudus]

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[meru90]

merch preview

some new stuff for the next shop update ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

[dormatheus]

Some quick random practice doodles bc why not lmao

-💊

[pawfulofwaffles]

@bunnyspine can I offer you a silly sticker guy in this trying time?

[telekitnetic-art]

repping the splatlands, it's

DEEP CUT! (FORMLINE)

(Sticker sheet available)

[sakuraa]

Merch I made for the @inkpopzine!! 🦑🐙✨

[cinalilli]

down, down, down, by the river

[the-ratt-king]

My printer is working finally so now I have a lil sticker (almost full) Wavewave family to watch over me as I draw 🥹

[bamsara]

The amount of b-grade/miscut/misprint stickers I get when making batches is goofy

What's in my hand is usable and can be sent out, the boxes behind it are all ones with imperfections/ damage but can't bring myself to throw away because it feels like I'm being wasteful. I might make 'scrap baggies' for each fandom and offer them on kofi for like 7-10 stickers for the price of one or something again

[warandpeas]

XL Sticker Sheet 🐉

This extra large vinyl sticker sheet features several bodacious stickers, including her majesty the ever-fearless Slutty Witch and her brazen sidekick Lord Nibbles (don’t tell him we called him a sidekick as he will claw our eyes out). Each motif has its own powerful persona and can be placed on any smooth surface of your choosing. May your enemies tremble in fear when you round the corner fully-adorned with these babies.

https://warandpeas.com/shop/

[kirby-the-gorb]

[synnepiruru]