Cut contour setup for large-format print
A cut profile only reaches the cutter if it is drawn as a spot-colour stroke, named consistently, and kept off the artwork layers. Here is the setup that survives the trip from design file to flatbed.
Draw the profile as a stroke, never a fill
A cut path is a single closed outline. Draw it as a stroke on its own path — not as a filled shape, not as an outlined stroke, and not as a compound of both. A filled shape gives the cutter two edges to follow and it will usually take the wrong one.
Keep the stroke thin. A hairline or 0.25pt is plenty: the stroke weight carries no meaning for the cutter, but a heavy stroke makes the path hard to see against the artwork and can confuse preview rendering.
Name the spot colour and the layer the same thing
Cutting software matches on names. Create a spot colour called CutContour and apply it to the stroke, then put the path on a layer with the same name. When both agree, the path separates predictably whichever route the file takes into the cutter.
If your cutter expects different naming — Thru-cut, Regmark, Route, Crease — rename the spot to match. In PSD Pro Suite the spot names are editable per job, so one workflow can serve several machines.
Set the cut stroke to overprint
A cut path set to knock out punches a white line through the artwork underneath it. Set the stroke to overprint so the print stays continuous and the path exists only as a separation.
The same rule applies to register marks and eyelet marks: they are guides for a machine, not ink on the job.
Keep it off the artwork layer
Cut geometry mixed into the artwork layer is the single most common reason a cut file arrives merged or a cut line prints. Give every process its own top-level layer — Artwork, CutContour, Kiss-cut, Crease, Drill, Route — and keep them flat rather than nested inside a parent group.
- Thru-cut: cuts all the way through the material.
- Kiss-cut: cuts the vinyl but not the liner.
- Crease: scores a fold line without cutting.
- Drill: a hole position rather than a path to follow.
- Route: a router path, usually with a bit-size allowance.
Common mistakes
- Live text used as a cut shape — outline it first, or the cutter gets nothing.
- Open paths where a closed outline is needed; the cutter will run off the end.
- Duplicate cut paths sitting on top of each other, which double-cut and tear the material.
- Cut paths drawn on the bleed rather than the trim, which cuts the job undersize.
- Effects, transparency or clipping masks applied to the cut path — flatten those out of the geometry.
How PSD Pro Suite handles it
Upload the artwork at actual size with 3mm bleed. If a cut profile is already drawn as a CutContour spot stroke, the module can take that path straight from your file; otherwise it generates the cut profile from the job geometry, including radiused corners where you want them.
Either way the cut path leaves on its own top-level layer in a layered .ai, so cutting software reads it as a separate process rather than merging it with the artwork.
Try it on a live job
Every module is included on one subscription — £99/month per user or £990/year, with a 7-day trial code to start. Artwork never leaves your browser.
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