Looking to buy and need some advice

[Schlongo 0]

Hello, my names Mark. I Just joined UScutters to help make a more informed purchase, I am an airbrush artist and I am looking for something that will make my life a little easier. I have been doing small scale designs for a while now on license plates for people but I've had to draw out all the images by hand onto transfer tape and then go in with an X-acto knife to cut the image out before I paint over it. I'm looking for a small sign plotter for right now that I can use to print my graphics out on, then simply weed and transfer to my surface instead of cutting out by hand. I actually went to school for air brushing at Ohio Technical College which also gave me a week long coarse in vinyl graphics so i know how to weed and transfer but not so much the software. What I'm looking for is a good beginner cutter that has software that will allow me to bring my existing patterns (many of which are Jpg images) over without a lot of hassle. I just don't want to have to buy images or freehand draw them over, also I know how to use photoshop and illustrator if that helps.

[NukleoN 34]

Hello, my names Mark. I Just joined UScutters to help make a more informed purchase, I am an airbrush artist and I am looking for something that will make my life a little easier. I have been doing small scale designs for a while now on license plates for people but I've had to draw out all the images by hand onto transfer tape and then go in with an X-acto knife to cut the image out before I paint over it. I'm looking for a small sign plotter for right now that I can use to print my graphics out on, then simply weed and transfer to my surface instead of cutting out by hand. I actually went to school for air brushing at Ohio Technical College which also gave me a week long coarse in vinyl graphics so i know how to weed and transfer but not so much the software. What I'm looking for is a good beginner cutter that has software that will allow me to bring my existing patterns (many of which are Jpg images) over without a lot of hassle. I just don't want to have to buy images or freehand draw them over, also I know how to use photoshop and illustrator if that helps.

Welcome Mark!

I have the Laserpoint 24" cutter from U.S. Cutter, and I like it a lot, mainly because it lets me do contour-cutting pretty easily. Basically, this is a way to print full-color on to self-adhesive vinyl, put it in your cutter and cut around the shapes. As an artist who knows Photoshop, you may want this feature later to make your own decals. If you don't need the contour-cutting feature, then you might also check out the Refines, but I think the LP24 is a darn good cutter as well.

Like you, I am an artist primarily, and I prefer SignCut Productivity Pro as my cutting software. It's not free and it costs a little bit to run on a subscription, but the cost is reasonable. There's also the free software 'Signblazer' which I hate, but it's free and you might like it (or not). The downside of SignBlazer is that it operates much like software did in the early 90's, and is orphan-ware right now. People also rave about Flex-starter, but if you're going to spend money I think SignCut is a good option. To be fair, I've never used Flexi.

I would seriously consider the Lp24 because of its great cutting but also the contour-cutting feature. It would be sad to buy a cutter only to realize you want this feature and wish you had bought something else.

Of course, you can cut frisket allllll day long with the LP as well before you ever get into contour-cutting.

There's probably no need to have this post in the Mac section either since these are general purpose questions, and I am pretty sure SignCut Prod Pro (and other software) is available on Mac.