contributing artist tips

5/21/2018 Contributing Artist Tips

1/7 2013 Silhouette America, Inc. All rights reserved. www.silhouetteamerica.com

Silhouette Digital Design Specifications

Types of designs

Overview

This document is intended for artists contributing work to the Silhouette Online Storeand should not be replicated or distributed.

For each submitted design, the artist should provide the following:

Two files (one .gif, .jpg, or .png and one .svg) containing the artwork for the design thumbnail and theactual cut lines for the Silhouette machine.

The thumbnail file (.gif, .jpg or .png) should portray the design as it should look after it has been cu

and assembled. This file should be in color and visually appealing and is to be used in the Silhouet

Online Store as the thumbnail representation of the design. This is what consumers will see when

they are deciding if they want to download your design. The image should be at least 600 pixels

wide across the longest side. It is expected that the image will be either 1. photographed on a pur

white background if it is intended to be a three dimensional design, or 2. represented as an illustra

tion matted on white if it is intended to be a 2D design. In either case the thumbnail should be cle

in focus and use solid colors where possible.

The .svg file should contain only the vector cutlines and printable artwork for the design. NO CLIP

PING MASKS and NO GRADIENTS are allowed in this artwork due to file size restrictions. NOTRANSPARENCY is allowed due to file format limitations. Refer to the examples in each section o

acceptable artwork.

The suggested name of the design

Suggested keywords for the design

Suggested categories for the desgn

Designs should be submitted via the online design submission tool found on the Silhouette Online Store

under the My Account section. Artists may access the site at the following URL:

http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com.

There are curently five different types of designs available on the Silhouette Online Store. Each of the five

design types has different specifications outlined in this document. The five types are:

Each of these design types will be discussed in detail throughout the rest of the document.

Regularcut

Printandcut

Sketch

Rhinestone template

PrintablePatterns

Thank you for your interest in participating in the Silhouette Contributing Artist Program. The intent of this

document is to prepare you to submit designs to the Silhouette Online Store. Before you can begin submitti

designs to the Store, you must first submit a portfolio of 15-20 SVG files with thumbnails to [email protected].

If youre accepted as a contributing artist, you may then submit designs at any time through the Silhouette

Online Store at http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com. Your designs will undergo a standard approval proce

and will either be accepted or rejected with an email notification to you. If you have any questions or sugges

tions, please contact us at [email protected].



When creating Designs, remember that each piece will be cut separately and needs to intui-

tively fit together. In this firework example, note the differences in the cut lines.

TIP:Overlapping Pieces

TIP:Overlapping Cut LinesCut lines should NEVER overlap (there are some exceptions, but theyre rare enough that we wont discuss

them here). This example demonstrates a design that will not be accepted due to overlapping cut lines.

Regular cut designs are intended to be simply cut with the Silhouette and used in any project. Some regula

cut designs are simple silhouettes and some are intricate designs with multiple pieces. Regular cut thumbna

files should follow all the general rules listed on page 1. The regular cut .svg file is required to display only o

instance of the design in an exploded format using polygons with no fill and a stroke width of 0.1 pts and

color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0, 0, 1). Please refer to the following example.

Dont: Do:

Regular Cut Example

Thumbnail:This image is clean,

visually appealing and repre-

sents what the design should

look like when cut and assem-

bled. It also shows no cut lines.

Cuttable design:This image portrays

only the cut lines that the Silhouette

should follow. The pieces have been

separated to help the Silhouette user

understand and arrange them for in-

dividual cutting. Since the cut line of

the star does not overlap the rocket

fusilage, it is OK for the two shapes

to remain one on top of the other.

Regular cut designs



In this illustration, the lines have

been altered so that each piece f

cleanly next to each other piece

without any overlapping. It is ea

for the average Silhouette user topiece together designs with clean

matching lines than it is to overla

jagged edges.

In this example, a matte is created

on which all of the pieces of the

shape can be adhered. In this way

a crafter can cut and glue the de-

sign together before positioning iton a card, scrapbook page or other

project.

In this illustration we can see the cut lines for the above firework. While each of these indivi

ual pieces can be cut and overlapped to achieve the above result, it may be more convenient

for Silhouette users if each piece fits together flatly or in clean layers instead of overlapping

haphazardly.

TIP:Overlapping Pieces (continued)

TIP:Design Complexity

When creating designs with many pieces, consider how easy or difficult it wilbe for the average Silhouette user to put everything together. This illustration

has many pieces which are fairly unique and easy to distinguish. In the first c

line example, the umbrella pieces may be difficult for some users to arrange a

piece together. In the second example, the same effect is achieved, but fewer

pieces are used resulting in a simpler design to assemble.

example 1 example 2

Dont:

Do: Do:



TIP:Cutting Restrictions

While the Silhouette can cut designs small or large, the average design is cut somewhere around three to fo

inches across. When creating intricate designs with small pieces, consider how the design will work at all

sizes. If any piece of a design is less than 1/8 (3.2 mm) across when sized to three or four inches it may be

rejected for lack of real usability.

Exception: When intricate designs are used in cut lines intended to create holes in a larger shape, smaller

widths will be tolerated.

The Silhouette software has the capability to print designs with special registration marks. These marks

can be read by the Silhouette via an internal optical sensor and used to align the cutting blade perfectly to

the printed material. Designs that are intended to be printed (on a home printer) and then cut out with the

Silhouette are referred to as print and cut designs. Print and cut thumbnails should follow all the normal ru

listed on page 1. However, the provided .svg file should contain cutlines overlaid on any art designed to beprinted. Only lines with a stroke width of 0.1 pts and color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0,0,1) will be converted

to cut lines. All other artwork in this file will be displayed as printable but not cuttable. There should NOT

any overlapping cut lines, however nested polygons are allowed as long as no cut lines cross or touch. NO

CLIPPING MASKS and NO GRADIENTS are allowed in this artwork due to file size restrictions. NO

TRANSPARENCY is allowed due to file format limitations.

Print and Cut Example

Thumbnail:This image is clean,

visually appealing and repre-sents what the design should

look like when cut and assem-

bled. It also shows no cut lines.

Cuttable design:This image is

intended to be printed, and portraysthe color and shape pieces arranged

how they should look in the final

product. It also displays the cut line

along the outside edge of the entire

design. The Silhouette will only cut

the lines with a weight of 0.1 pts

and color 0x000001 (RGB: 0, 0, 1).

Print and cut designs



The Silhouette machine has the capability to draw designs with a pen instead of cutting. This is accomplish

by removing the blade from the machine and replacing it with a Silhouette sketch pen or pen holder. When

the Silhouette is loaded with a pen instead of a blade, all normal cut lines are drawn instead of cut. While a

digital design can be drawn instead of cut, some designs are created specifically for sketching and could not

realistically be cut.

Certain Silhouette designs are intended to be used as templates for Silhouette heat transfer rhinestones.

When these templates are cut in specific sizes, Silhouette rhinestones can easily be brushed into the tem-

plates holes and can then be easily transferred to a variety of projects. For a step-by-step walkthrough on

how Silhouette rhinestones work, please refer to the Rhinestone Starter Guide available at

http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/media/docs/instruction-guide_rhinestones.pdf. Rhinestone template

are essentially a series of specifically-sized circles.

Rhinestone template thumbnails should consist of a series of filled non-overlapping circles using any comb

nation of the following available rhinestone colors: clear (usually represented with a light grey), cobalt blue,citrine yellow, red, orange, amber, emerald green, pink, aqua, black, champagne and metallic.

Rhinestone template .svg files should contain the same series of non-overlapping circles with no fill and a

stroke width of .1 pts and a color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0,0,1). Rhinestones are currently available in three

sizes (10ss, 16ss and 20ss) and should only be represented in the cut file with those specific sizes. The exa

dimensions of each of these sizes is as follows:

Sketch design thumbnails should follow all standard rules listed on page 1. The .svg file should contain sketlines with no fill and a stroke width of 0.1 pts and color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0,0,1). In these designs

there are no restrictions as to how the sketch lines overlap. Be aware that the fewer the colors used in the d

sign the easier it is for consumers to use. Each sketch design .svg file should also include a matte used to c

the sketched design out. The matte can be easily made by creating an offset path of the entire sketch objec

The matte should follow the same specifications of stroke width and color and should be placed next to the

sketchable object rather than on top of it. Please refer to the following example.

Sketch designs

Rhinestone templates

thumbnail .svg file

sketch object matte

10ss = .13 inches

16ss = .16 inches

20ss = .21 inches



It is critical that the holes in the rhinestone templates be exactly the sizes prescribed in this document.

Rhinestone templates cannot be resized, so create the design with its final dimensions in mind.

The rhinestone template thumbnail should exactly mimic the cut file with the exception that the cirlces sho

be filled instead of stroked as mentioned in this section.

In this actual-size example the smaller circles a

.13 inches (10ss size) and the larger ones are .2

inches (20ss size).

Example:

IMPORTANT: When submitting rhinestone templates to the Online Store, it is necessary to place the follow

ing information in the description field provided:

TIP: Submitting rhinestone templates

The number of each size of rhinestones required to create the image (ie. This design requires 71 of the

10ss rhinestones and 4 of the 16ss).

The final dimensions of the rhinestone design (remember these designs cant be resized since each ho

has a specific size requirement).

thumbnail cut file



IMPORTANT: We will only accept a few versions of the same pattern regardless of the color variations.TIP: Submitting printable patterns

Example: thumbnail

Example: .png or .jpg file

Printable patterns are unique in that they do not require a Silhouette electronic cutting tool to be created.

Rather, the patterns are printed from the Silhouette Studio software using an ink jet printer. The submitted

designs should be square print and cut files with each side being in the range of 2500-3000 pixels wide. A

submissions must be in .png or .jpg format and be accompanied by a thumbnail that provides an accurate

representation of the pattern.

Printable patterns

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