Solving Common Print Then Cut Problems

Quick Tips:

• Select All, Flatten.
• Be SURE you are flattening to a shape - you can't flatten text to empty space.
• There needs to be a black box [black corners at least] around your project.  That's how cricut knows where to cut.
• If it is not cutting exactly around your shape (the cut is offset) - Calibrate your machine
• If your machine cannot read the registration marks, make sure your project is on the mat in the same direction as shown on the screen - and make sure it is slightly inside the grid lines.  Trying moving it 1/4 of an inch in and 1/4 inch down, from the outside grid line on the mat.

The most common issue with print then cut is that your text is not flattened to a shape.  It cannot just be flattened, it needs to be flattened TO something.  I cover that in detail below, along with that black registration box,  cricut not detecting the project to cut it, and what to do if the machine is cutting in the wrong spots.

Cricut needs the black box [these days it's 4 brackets in the corners, previously it was a full box around the image]  to know exactly where to cut.  When you place the printed paper onto a mat and load it into the machine, cricut will "scan" the mat, and locate exactly where the black box is.  That tells the machine exactly where to cut your image.

Print Then Cut Quick Tip Card

I explain this in more detail below, but here's the quick version. You have to flatten to a shape.  You cannot just flatten, it has to be flattened to a solid shape that it will cut.

How To Tell Cricut To Print Then Cut

For Cut, and Draw, you choose from the drop down box under Operation

For Print Then Cut, you go to the next box, over and choose "print" from the fill options.

How To Keep Cricut From Cutting Out Each Letter Of Text

Flatten To A Shape

If your Layer Panel Looks Like This, It WILL cut every letter.

See in the layers panel, there are two items here - Text, and a shape.

This is telling cricut to print the text and print the yellow star, then to cut around the star and around the text.  Because this is not attached, it will not even cut the text on the star.

If I select all and attach, it will now cut the text out of the middle of the star, as it appears on the left.

To fix this, select all, and flatten.

Flatten can be found in the bottom right of the screen in design space.  You need to have at least two items selected to flatten.

A Correct Example For Print Then Cut

Look to the right in the layers panel - see how it is just one item?  This is what you want to see.  This is telling cricut to print a yellow star with writing in it, and then to cut around the star.

Make sure your shape has a "back"

In this example, the layers panel is one image, but this will still cut every letter - because text is "floating" on a transparent background.  If you can see the grid behind your text, the machine is going to cut each letter individually.

To solve this, create a rectangle shape, slice your frame out of the rectangle.  Delete all but your frame and the new "center" piece you have created.  Make your background shape white, your fame whatever color you would like, Select all and flatten, and now you should have one shape - a colored frame around a white background with your text. 

Bleed Or No Bleed?

Leave It On 

See how fuzzy & thick the letters are?

This tells me right away that my text is not flattened to a shape, and it will cut out each letter.

If your letters are all "fuzzy" or extra wide when you print, that is an indication that the bleed is on - but it also tells you right away that cricut is going to cut every letter.  You will only see the "bleed" where Cricut is going to cut.  Bleed can be important on some designs, usually it's best to leave it on.  It "bleeds" the image over the cut line, so that when cricut cuts, there is no white left around the image.

With the bleed on, there is no white edge showing around my cut out shape.

If The Machine Won't Read The Registration Marks

 Use White Paper, Close The Lid, and/or Change the lighting.

I've sometimes has to turn more lights on, and sometimes had to turn lights off.  A glare, or too little light, can keep the machine from reading the registration marks (that black box around your design) that tells the machine where to cut.

More Tips, From Cricuts Help Section:

• Verify your Cricut machine mat has been placed under the mat guides, and ensure the mat is positioned snugly against the machine's rollers before pressing the Load button on the machine.
• Is the mat bent? A bend or crease in the mat can cause a failure to read the cut sensor marks. Press down on the bend if possible as your machine scans cut sensor marks, or remove sheet, rotate mat 180-degrees, reapply sheet to the opposite end of the mat and reattempt the cut.
• For best results, use a machine mat with few or no marks or smudges. A mat with smudges near the cut sensor marks may cause your Cricut machine to mistake the smudges for cut sensor marks.
• Verify that the Print Then Cut sensor light is clean. To clean the cut sensor light on your Cricut Explore or Cricut Maker machine, sweep gently with a small, clean, dry watercolor paintbrush.
• Verify that the Print Then Cut sensor light comes on when scanning for Print Then Cut sensor markings. It is located on the underside of the carriage. If that light does not come on when scanning the Print Then Cut sensor marks, contact Member Care for assistance.
• Print your image again, making sure the paper size is set to Letter and that you have unselected any page scaling options such as Fit to Page or Shrink to Fit. The page needs to print at actual size. 

Close the lid on your machine.

Make sure your project is loaded on the mat in the same direction as it is shown on the screen.  If it is upside down, the machine will not find the registration marks.

The Air Machines can only do print then cut on white paper, although there is a hack to help work around that.  The maker can print then cut on colored paper. It involves printing your design twice, once on colored paper and once on white - there's a good tutorial here, from Too Much Love:

http://www.toomuchlove.ca/2018/02/print-and-cut-hack-for-ds-5-3/

Although I know it's possible, or at least was possible, to print your item elsewhere, and then cut it out when you got home to your machine, Cricut now says you can NOT do that, and that print then cut must be done "all in one session".  In other words, do not print unless you are ready to immediately cut, from the same device, without closing the program.  

CAN you still print elsewhere?  Maybe, sometimes.  

If The Machine Is Not cutting In The Right Spots 

Calibrate

If your machine is cutting "offset" of the design, you may need to calibrate your machine.

For more information on how to calibrate your machine:

https://help.cricut.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009424974-Calibrating-your-machine-for-Print-Then-Cut

Quick tip - how to switch from cut, to draw, to print then cut

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2020/08/quick-tip-switch-from-cut-to-draw-using.html

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An Index Of All Of My Cricut Related Blog Posts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/02/an-index-of-cricut-resources-how-tos.html