If you have a Silhouette Curio™, you get a few special features that can be unlocked in Silhouette Studio®. These features include Stippling and Embossing. You’ll find the Stippling panel along the right-hand side (it looks like a star made of dots). The Emboss panel is directly below it, and it looks like star with some shading. As you hover over these icons, a pop-up tells you that the Stippling panel requires a CAMEO 3 or a Curio,

and the Emboss panel requires a Curio.

The panel will open, but the options will be grayed out unless the right machine is connected. Let’s look at the Stippling panel first. In this first tab you can turn a cuttable design into a stipple design. Stippling is the process of making a design into a series of dots. A stipple design is intended for stippling by making small indents in thin metal sheets or for stippling using a marker or felt-tip pen.

If you check the box for Stipple Edge, the cut lines turn into dotted lines.

Choosing a Stipple Fill will fill your selected design with a fill pattern.

You can play with all the options like Spacing or Scale Factor to change the look of the stipple effect.

In the second tab of the Stipple Panel, you’ll find Stipple Trace.

If you have a printable image you want to convert to a stipple design, like this PNG file with leaves, simply Select a Stipple Area,

make adjustments,

and then choose “Create Stipple.”

Now let’s look at the Emboss panel. Remember, these features will only work if you’ve connected a Curio to your computer. The machine doesn’t need to be powered on while designing, but it should be the most recent machine connected.

The first tab lets you choose Deboss or Emboss, depending on the material you are using.

Deboss is the option you’ll use if you are creating a fill pattern for things like metal etching, foil embossing, foil transfer sheets, and sketch pen fills. Select your design, choose a pattern, adjust the spacing, and it’s ready to etch or emboss exactly as you see it!

Remember to set up your page size, mat, and cut settings based on the material you’re using.

If you’re using Score & Emboss paper, you’ll choose the Emboss option on the first tab.

Go to the second tab that has a ratchet-blade icon to represent scoring. This is for Score & Emboss.

Choose your tool and number of passes (or Fill to apply score lines throughout the shape). Then click Apply Score & Emboss Lines.

This design is now ready to send, and keep in mind that the Emboss option means your machine will do its work on the back side of the soft paper so your project will be automatically mirrored on the page.

The third tab is for Print & Emboss, and it gives you step-by-step instructions.

Those are the basics on how to access the specialty features in Silhouette Studio® if you have a Silhouette Curio™.