As many of you know, in addition to photography, I am a bit of a crafter. I've done decals, signs, tshirts, etc. Basically, I’ve been cutting vinyl for over 10 years. I started with a hacked Cricut (I had my own designs, I couldn’t be limited to what was available on the cartridges.) and a software program similar to this one. I quickly upgraded to a pro level cutter and have been using it.
But I’ve begun expanding my creations and the entry level software is older <no upgrades without paying big bucks and it requires a dongle that I’m certain I’ll break or lose at some point.> and doesn’t offer all the features I wanted. I did a bit of searching late one night and found this software, Easy Cut Studio
Easy Cut Studio is free to download, but you will need a license to cut designs you can use. You see without purchasing a license all the things you cut will have lines cut through the design, rendering them pretty much useless. However the cost of the license is well worth it, it runs $69.95, but there is a currently a sale that brings it down to 59.95, plus you get a free vector image bundle worth $99.95!
You can do soo many things with this software. Have a curved surface you want to make a decal for that will be straight when its put on <think glass or bowl>? This software has the wrapper function. You tell it what size the top diameter is and the bottom and also how tall it is… and it figures out how much curve <And which way> it needs to be curved! And unlike other programs if your container has a smaller top than a bottom, its no problem. <I’ve used some that I had to flip the design because their software required the top be bigger than the bottom.> Wanna make your design into a Rhinestone Tshirt? That’s simple. Load the design, select it, then go to effects. Scroll down to Rhinestone. You’ll select which size and shape stone you are using. You can preview it to make sure it looks good. If you want the design filled with Rhinestones….just click the fill with shape with stones, you can even adjust the spacing between stones.
It’s way simpler to create your own cutting files with this software than others. From inside the program you can open a file <including jpgs> and convert them to a cutting file. You can also freehand draw your own designs inside the program.
I would love to try the pro version as well at some point, but so far Easy Cut Studio is pretty much perfect for me. Give it a try! It’s a nice small, quick to download and set up program that is easy to figure out and works with a HUGE number of cutters of all price ranges.
So if you want to check out the software yourself, go to https://www.easycutstudio.com/ and download your own demo <I bet you end up buying it!>
