Glossary

.studio file: The file format in which Silhouette Studio® saves your design.

3D relief: The stamp sheet after the Mint prints a design on it. The Mint uses a UV light to burn your design into the stamp sheet. The thermal printing process works in a way similar to light-sensitive paper. The light burns the areas around your design, leaving behind a relief.

Active cut area: The area inside the red border where your Silhouette will cut. Anything outside of this area will not be cut. Anything overlapping this line will be sliced where the red line hits.

Anti-aliasing: A feature that helps smooth jagged lines as they are created and viewed. Higher sample rates will increase the smoothness of lines. The “off” setting will produce rougher edges, but increases drawing speed. Access this feature though the Preference menu.

AutoBlade: The self-adjusting blade for the CAMEO 3. It can only be used with the CAMEO 3 in the left-hand tool holder.

Base: The hard loading platform Curio uses. The base is adjustable for different material sizes.

Blade level: The number on the blade that controls how far the tip is exposed in 0.1 mm increments. This accommodates for the material’s actual thickness. For example, a blade level of 1 = .01 mm, a level of 2 = 0.2 mm, etc. If you have a material such as cardstock where the actual thickness is 0.3 mm, setting the blade to a higher exposure (such as 0.6 mm or a setting of 6) would mean you are exposing the blade beyond the actual depth of the material. This does not allow the blade to cut better. It just exposes more of the blade and, if extending beyond the actual thickness of the material, can dull down the blade tip much more quickly or in extreme cases break off the tip. This would then result in ragged cutting results. From that point on, you would then have to expose the blade to a higher level because a setting of 6 would actually be only exposed 0.3 mm since you had worn down the excess tip beyond the material’s thickness. We would thus discourage attempts to overexpose the blade to try and get a “better” cut.

Bounding border: The space between two or more objects that the software uses as the edges of the design to align objects. The software will take the far left-side of the left shape, the far right-side of the right shape, the top of the top shape, and the bottom of the bottom shape. This invisible square is the space Silhouette Studio® uses to align objects.

Calibration: The process of adjusting and checking your camera so you can use the PixScan&trad; feature.

CAMEO: Our cutting machine with the largest cutting area (12 in.). The CAMEO 3 features a dual-carriage.

Carriage: The moving piece that holds your Silhouette tools, like your blade or a sketch pen. The CAMEO 3 and Curio have two tool holders per carriage.

Commercial use: The process of using a digital design in any physical project, product, artwork, etc. that is intended for resale or commercial use.

Compound path: A collection of two or more line sets where inner lines are embedded into the image. Think of it as the lines on top punching through to the lines underneath. A compound path may appear the same as a grouped set of lines, but is quite different in the way it will react to being filled with color.

Curio: Our specialty machine that unlocks etching, debossing and embossing. It also features a dual-carriage, the highest clearance of all machines, stipples.

Cut: A pass your Silhouette makes with its carriage and tool. A cut does not necessarily need to be made with a blade, as passes with you Silhouette sketch pens or Curio tools are also referred to as cuts.

Cut border: Marked by a red line, the boundary around the outside of your page where your Silhouette can read and cut information. Anything outside of this will not be cut.

Cut job: The information sent to your Silhouette when you click “Start.” This is everything you have marked as “Cut” in the Send panel.

Cut line: A line (default red) in Silhouette Studio® that tells your Silhouette where to cut. When you click on the Send panel, you’ll find that the cut line become thicker, showing you exactly what lines are being sent to cut.

Cutting area/drawing area: The white page in Silhouette Studio®. It is also called the “active cut area”. Only the things in this area will be sent to your Silhouette.

Cutting mat: The mat with a sticky surface that you load into your machine. There are different size cutting mats for different material sizes and machines.

Deboss: A Curio feature where your design will be impressed into the paper, providing indents.

Deep-cut Blade: A 2 mm long blade that cuts through thicker materials than the regular blade.

Despeckle Threshold: This helps eliminate noise in your trace. If you have extra small spots traced that you don’t want to traced, adjust this threshold.

Document tabs: The tabs at the top of your screen that allow you to toggle between documents in Silhouette Studio® or Mint Studio&trad;.

Dual-carriage: A carriage with two tool holders. Curio and the CAMEO 3 both have dual-carriages.

Edition: The four different levels of Silhouette Studio® that are available—Basic Edition, Designer Edition (DE), Designer Edition Plus (DE +), and Business Edition. Each edition adds to the features of the previous editions.

Emboss: A Curio feature where you use an embossing tool to carve into your material so your design has raised edges.

Etch: A Curio feature where you engrave your design onto a material.

Firmware: Software that is embedded into a piece of hardware. Occasionally, the CAMEO and Curio will have firmware updates available through silhouetteamerica.com.

Force (Thickness in older versions): Also known as “hardness”, the setting in the Send panel that controls how hard the blade is pressing down. This accommodates for how dense the material may be. For example, a sheet of paper that measures a 0.3mm depth versus a sheet of denser cardstock that measures the same 0.3mm depth would require the blade to be pushed down with a different Force level.

Glossy: A shiny, bright finish.

Glyphs: The extra characters included in fonts that you can access through your computer.

Grouped/Ungrouped: Lines that are fixed/not fixed in their relative positions, even when moved. You can group things temporarily to move them and then ungroup. Or, things can stay permanently grouped.

High Pass Filter: This allows the trace lines to be set beginning from the outside of your image and working towards the inside of the image as the filter setting is adjusted up. If you do not wish to create a frame outline for your image, turn this option off.

Holding area: The grey area next to your white page in Silhouette Studio®. You can use this area to hold designs not being sent to your Silhouette.

Kisscut: A cut that cuts through the first layer of your media while leaving the second layer intact. The kisscut is used for any double-layered media such as vinyl, sticker sheets, tattoo paper, and adhesive cardstock.

Layering: Organizing objects into different sections (or layers) that can interact together or separately.

LCD display: The CAMEO touch-screen display. This is an interactive screen that will help you load and unload your media.

Line segment overcut: A feature that cuts lines slightly farther than the edge of the intended cut. Selecting the “Off” option will have all lines cut normally. Selecting the “On” option will have all straight corners cut with a slight overcut.

Lined media: A material that has its own lining attached. Examples are vinyl or adhesive cardstock. Lined media does not require the use of a cutting mat, but cutting mats may still be used.

Load/load media: The two different options to load your machine. Use “load” when you are loading a material on your cutting mat and choose “load media” when you are loading material that comes with its own backing and is not placed on a cutting mat.

Low Pass Filter: This allows the trace lines to begin at the center of your image and then work outwards as the filter setting is adjusted up.

Magnet Trace: A tracing feature that allows you to manually trace an object. Your tracing circle will cling like a magnet to the shape.

Material fasteners: Small plastic pieces to hold your material onto your Curio base.

Matless cutting: Feeding lined media into your machine without a mat. Some material comes with its own backing and doesn’t require you to use a cutting mat.

Matte: A dulled, soft finish.

Media: The different kinds of materials that you can use with your Silhouette, such as vinyl, cardstock, heat transfer, wood, metal, and chipboard.

Media Layout View: A view available in Business Edition of Silhouette Studio® where you will see a side-by-side view of your design screen and a screen that shows what your Silhouette will actually cut. Through this view you can access additional business features like Tiling, Nesting, and Matrix Copy.

Mint: Custom stamp maker. Using Mint Studio&trad;, it allows you to design and print custom stamps.

Nesting: Fitting smaller objects into larger ones. Generally, it is fitting your objects into the smallest cutting space possible to save material.

Operating system (OS): The software that runs your computer’s basic functions. The two operating systems our software is designed for are Mac® and Windows®. Make sure you download the compatible software, or the program will not install properly.

Page: The white portion of your workspace. Any design on your page is live, meaning that it can be sent to your connected Silhouette.

Passes: A feature where the Silhouette will cut through all lines in your cutting area by the number set. Some materials automatically include two passes. If your material is thicker increase the number of passes

PixScan&trad;: A feature in Silhouette Studio® that lets you take a picture of your design, upload it to your computer, and make exact cuts around the image.

Platform: The raised surfaces that you build to place on your base when you are using your Curio. Different materials will require a different number of platforms.

Portrait: The electronic cutting machine with a 8.5 in. x 11 in. cutting space.

Print & Cut: An image with two parts. There is a design you will print with your home printer and corresponding cut lines you will cut with your Silhouette. The cut lines will not be printed.

Print & Emboss: The act of printing your project to your home printer, loading your printed sheet into your Curio, and embossing lines on the design.

Print border: The thin grey rectangle that shows the boundary the printer you have connected to your computer can print within.

Ratchet blade: The standard blade for your Silhouette. It can be adjusted using the ratchet adjuster built into your machine or a ratchet cap.

Ready, Set, Make: The section in the Design Store where you can find dozens of ready-made projects with instructions to help you create the featured project. When you purchase a project from Ready, Set, Make, you get all of the included designs at a discounted price.

Registration marks: Marks you can activate to print around the border of your workspace. They will be read by your Silhouette’s optic scanner prior to cutting so that the Silhouette can triangulate according to where these marks are located and know exactly where the cut lines are defined around your printed images. Registration marks are only used when printing images for Print & Cut jobs.

Regular cut: A cut with your blade made by your Silhouette.

Release lever: The lever on the right-hand side of the roller bar in the CAMEO. You must release the lever to move the roller bar and lock the lever to cut.

Reverse weeding: A technique where you place transfer tape over your vinyl as soon as you cut it out. Transfer the vinyl to the transfer tape and flip it over. Then, weed the vinyl while it is on the transfer tape. This is helpful for small or intricate designs.

Roll feeder: A product that holds a roll of vinyl in place while your machine is cutting your design. This will save you from holding your roll and trying to feed it in straight while a long design is cutting.

Roller bars: The bar in the CAMEO and Portrait that material rolls under when being cut.

Score & Emboss: A feature where you first lightly cut your material (or score) and then you use that line to get a more pronounced emboss. You will load both a blade and an embossing tool into your Curio.

Seasoning your mat: A technique where you rub your mat against your pants, a cotton tee, or even on the floor. This will stop your media from over-sticking to your mat if it is new and very adhesive.

Sheet: A single piece of media in a predetermined size (such as 12 in. x 12 in. or 8.5 in x 11 in.). Many of the Silhouette products, like adhesive cardstock or vinyl, are available for sale are sold in packs with a specific number of sheets included.

Silhouette Cloud: A computer server that stores your data in an off-site location and syncs it to your devices so that all of them are up to date with the latest content, file structure, etc. The Silhouette Cloud allows you to share Silhouette Design Store files, your own files, and your folder structures between devices.

Silhouette Connect&trad;: A plug-in available for those who want to cut directly from Adobe Illustrator® or CorelDraw®. Once the plug-in is purchased and installed, you can send your design to your Silhouette directly from your design program without ever opening Silhouette Studio®.

Silhouette cutting machines: The Silhouette CAMEO®, the Silhouette Portrait®, and the Silhouette Curio&trad;. We group Curio with the other cutting machines because in addition to its specialty features like embossing or etching, it also cuts.

Silhouette Design Store: An ever-growing marketplace full of thousands of designs you can use with your Silhouette. These range from simple shapes to intricate patterns, fonts, and designs.

Silhouette Link: The program that runs in the background of your computer, connecting your Silhouette to your wireless device.

Silhouette Studio® Mobile: Our mobile app. Download Silhouette Studio® Mobile onto your Android or IOS device and start designing. Using Silhouette Cloud, you can share designs between five devices.

Sintered Tungsten Alloy: Each Silhouette blade is made primarily of tungsten, a hard steel-grey metal. The tungsten is mixed with various metals to strengthen the blade, making it an alloy. Powdered tungsten and other metals are compressed and heated until they form a solid mass that is sharpened into a blade. The strength of the tungsten alloy and the compressed metal are what allow your Silhouette blades to cut so precisely.

Stamp sheet: The media that gets inserted into your Silhouette Mint&trad;. It is an adhesive-backed, rubber sheet that reacts with a UV light inside the Mint to create your design. This stamp sheet is unique to Silhouette.

Standard media: Media that is not lined. Regular cardstock is an example of standard media.

Stippling: A Curio feature where you create a design with clustered dots instead of a continuous line. The Stippling & Etching tool works best with Silhouette Metal Stippling sheets or on media like paper or canvas with a felt-tipped marker.

Test Cut: The little triangle within a square cut so you can try out your Cut Settings. Using a Test Cut will save on media waste by perfecting your cut settings in a tiny area before you cut your entire design.

Threshold: This determines how broadly the trace filter is applied to your image beginning with the darkest colors for low settings.

Tiling: The feature that cuts or tiles your large design into pieces so cutting-area sized pieces are sent to your Silhouette. This is available in Business Edition.

Track enhancing: A feature that moves the mat or other material back and forth through the Silhouette prior to the actual cutting process. As material thickness increases, the rollers (dependent upon the material type and surface) may not grip as firmly on the material’s surface during operation. In such cases, it may be recommended to enable the Track Enhancing option. The action of feeding the material through the Silhouette several times prior to operation creates a “track” for the Silhouette to roll on and gain a better grip during the job in question.

Transfer paper/tape: A lightweight paper or tape to use when transferring your design from its liner to your project.

Vellum: Thin, translucent white paper.

Version: The particular form of the software you are using. New software versions are released to keep the program up-to-date and to fix any bugs or glitches. When you are prompted to update your software, you are installing a new version.

Weed lines: The lines placed in your design that makes it easier for you to weed. Add lines so when you are pulling your vinyl, it can break in sections instead of trying to weed your entire design at once.

Weeding: The process of removing the excess material from the design.

Welding: The process of merging two shapes into one.