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com 1
Silhouette Digital Design Specifications
Types of designs
Overview
This document is intended for artists contributing work to the Silhouette Online Store
and 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 the
actual 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 cut
and assembled. This file should be in color and visually appealing and is to be used in the Silhouette
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 pure
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 clean,
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. NO
TRANSPARENCY is allowed due to file format limitations. Refer to the examples in each section of
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.
Regular cut
Print and cut
Sketch
Rhinestone template
Printable Patterns
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 submitting
designs to the Store, you must first submit a portfolio of 15-20 SVG files with thumbnails to artist@silhou-
etteamerica.com.

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 process
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 artist@silhouetteamerica.com.
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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 Lines
Cut 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 regular
cut designs are simple silhouettes and some are intricate designs with multiple pieces. Regular cut thumbnail
files should follow all the general rules listed on page 1. The regular cut .svg file is required to display only one
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
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In this illustration, the lines have
been altered so that each piece fits
cleanly next to each other piece
without any overlapping. It is easier
for the average Silhouette user to
piece together designs with clean,
matching lines than it is to overlap
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 it
on a card, scrapbook page or other
project.
In this illustration we can see the cut lines for the above firework. While each of these individ-
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 will
be 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 cut
line example, the umbrella pieces may be difficult for some users to arrange and
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:
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TIP: Cutting Restrictions
While the Silhouette can cut designs small or large, the average design is cut somewhere around three to four
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 rules
listed on page 1. However, the provided .svg file should contain cutlines overlaid on any art designed to be
printed. 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 be
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 portrays
the 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
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The Silhouette machine has the capability to draw designs with a pen instead of cutting. This is accomplished
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 any
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 templates
are essentially a series of specifically-sized circles.
Rhinestone template thumbnails should consist of a series of filled non-overlapping circles using any combi-
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 exact
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 sketch
lines 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 de-
sign the easier it is for consumers to use. Each sketch design .svg file should also include a matte used to cut
the sketched design out. The matte can be easily made by creating an offset path of the entire sketch object.
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
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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 should
be filled instead of stroked as mentioned in this section.
In this actual-size example the smaller circles are
.13 inches (10ss size) and the larger ones are .21
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 hole
has a specific size requirement).
thumbnail cut file
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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. All
submissions must be in .png or .jpg format and be accompanied by a thumbnail that provides an accurate
representation of the pattern.
Printable patterns