The Cricut cartridges are wonderful to have. They make using the Cricut darn easy… But have you ever thought it would just be nice to be able to cut exactly what you want? Fortunately you can do just that with the third-party software packages that allow you to hook your Cricut up to a computer. Let’s take a look at the most popular choices for Cricut software below.
Cricut Design Studio: The Original Cricut Software
The Cricut Design Studio is the original Cricut software sold by Provo Craft. CDS allows you to combine shapes from any cartridge you own to make new things. People have created amazing designs with the George cartridge alone. With Design Studio, you can combine letters (called welding) to create titles where the letters are connected. You can also join letters with shapes to create neat things. Design Studio includes the shapes from every cartridge they make, and while you can design with any cartridge, you’re only able to cut the things from the cartridges you have in hand.
With Design Studio, you connect the Cricut to the computer and use the software to update the firmware on your Cricut to allow it to receive commands from the computer. It’s pretty neat software, but some people find it a little clunky.
You can use more than one cartridge in a cutting. The options are endless. Bring letters and images from any cartridge into the cutting you are designing. When you are ready to cut, the Cricut will ask you to load each cartridge you used. If you have the jukebox you can just load the cartridges you used and go. Otherwise it is simplest to cut from one cartridge or you will have to change the cartridge several times. The jukebox holds 6 cartridges.
Third-Party Softwares: Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) and Make the Cut (MTC)
A couple of other options are Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) and Make the Cut (MTC). They also are computer software packages. Provo Craft will tell you that using them will void your warranty. I have not heard of either software actually causing problems with the machine, and Provo Craft does NOT want you to use it, but I wanted to throw the warranty thing out because they will enforce it if they know you’ve been using the software.
Craft Edge describes “Sure Cuts A Lot” as an “extremely easy program to allow you to cut your True Type fonts and various shapes on your CricutTM Machine, with the combination of using your fonts, importing custom artwork and drawing your own shapes”.
SCAL has been out for a while and it’s only slightly younger than Design Studio. MTC (Make the Cut) has been out for about six months. Both of them do very similar things. They both allow you to use your True Type fonts (including dingbats and shape fonts) on your computer to cut letters and words. Both packages weld letters and shapes and have the ability to auto-trace graphics to be able to cut custom shapes.
Say you own a company and you want to cut your logo out of vinyl to put on your car. Or a friend is in a band and wants to cut their logo for flyers or a poster or whatever. You could do that with either SCAL or MTC. You just have to be careful about copyrights. Just about anything you find on the internet or in print has either a specific or implied copyright. That includes not only corporate logos, but any recognizable graphics.
People who sell and give away cut files often specify terms of use. The files are obviously meant for cutting, but there are limits to what you can do with them. Even the Provocraft shapes on the cartridges have limits (be sure to check out Provo Craft’s Angel Policy if you want to sell anything).
Both packages also import SVG-format files. Some people offer them for free, some people offer them for purchase, but there are lots out there. You can also make your own using vector based software like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or Inkscape (a free package). Both Illustrator and Inkscape have pretty big learning curves.
There are Yahoo groups dedicated to both, so lots of people are willing to help you get around whichever you choose, if you chose to go this direction. The best thing about SCAL and MTC is that you’re not limited by what Provo Craft thinks people want on cartridges. I’ve heard lots of grumbling over the years that there aren’t more boy-related cartridges or religious cartridges or this or that. With SCAL and MTC, you don’t have to wait for Provo Craft to create what you want. You can find it or even make it yourself.
Both Sure Cuts a Lot and Make the Cut require that your Cricut firmware be updated, so you have to install at least the trial version of Design Studio to do that. Some people prefer how MTC works, some people prefer SCAL. Luckily, both SCAL and MTC have trial versions, but only SCAL works on Macs. So go ahead and download and try them both before you decide.
Great to know. I always wanted to know the differences on each software and which one to purchase. Thanks. Now I know know which one I want to get :o)