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This document is intended for artists contributing work to the Silhouette Online Store
and should not be replicated or distributed.
Thank you for your interest in participating in the Silhouette Contributing Artist Program. The intent of this
document is to prepare you to submit designs to the Silhouette Online Store. Before you can begin submitting
designs to the Store, you must first submit a portfolio of 15-20 SVG files with thumbnails to artist@silhou-
etteamerica.com.
If you’re accepted as a contributing artist, you may then submit designs at any time through the Silhouette
Online Store at http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com. Your designs will undergo a standard approval process
and will either be accepted or rejected with an email notification to you. If you have any questions or sugges-
tions, please contact us at artist@silhouetteamerica.com.
Overview
For each submitted design, the artist should provide the following:
• Two files (one .gif, .jpg, or .png and one .svg) containing the artwork for the design thumbnail and the
actual cut lines for the Silhouette machine.
• The thumbnail file (.gif, .jpg or .png) should portray the design as it should look after it has been cut
and assembled. This file should be in color and visually appealing and is to be used in the Silhouette
Online Store as the thumbnail representation of the design. This is what consumers will see when
they are deciding if they want to download your design. The image should be at least 600 pixels
wide across the longest side. It is expected that the image will be either 1. photographed on a pure
white background if it is intended to be a three dimensional design, or 2. represented as an illustra-
tion matted on white if it is intended to be a 2D design. In either case the thumbnail should be clean,
in focus and use solid colors where possible.
• The .svg file should contain only the vector cutlines and printable artwork for the design. NO CLIP-
PING MASKS and NO GRADIENTS are allowed in this artwork due to file size restrictions. NO
TRANSPARENCY is allowed due to file format limitations. Refer to the examples in each section of
acceptable artwork.
• The suggested name of the design
• Suggested keywords for the design
• Suggested categories for the desgn
Designs should be submitted via the online design submission tool found on the Silhouette Online Store
under the My Account section. Artists may access the site at the following URL:
http://www.silhouetteonlinestore.com.
Types of designs
There are curently five different types of designs available on the Silhouette Online Store. Each of the five
design types has different specifications outlined in this document. The five types are:
• Regular cut
• Print and cut
• Sketch
• Rhinestone template
• Printable Patterns
Each of these design types will be discussed in detail throughout the rest of the document.
© 2013 Silhouette America, Inc. All rights reserved. www.silhouetteamerica.com • 1
Regular cut designs
Regular cut designs are intended to be simply cut with the Silhouette and used in any project. Some regular
cut designs are simple silhouettes and some are intricate designs with multiple pieces. Regular cut thumbnail
files should follow all the general rules listed on page 1. The regular cut .svg file is required to display only one
instance of the design in an exploded format using polygons with no fill and a stroke width of 0.1 pts and
color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0, 0, 1). Please refer to the following example.
Don’t: Do:
Do: Do:
In this example, a matte is created In this illustration, the lines have
on which all of the pieces of the been altered so that each piece fits
shape can be adhered. In this way cleanly next to each other piece
a crafter can cut and glue the de- without any overlapping. It is easier
sign together before positioning it for the average Silhouette user to
on a card, scrapbook page or other piece together designs with clean,
project. matching lines than it is to overlap
jagged edges.
When creating designs with many pieces, consider how easy or difficult it will
be for the average Silhouette user to put everything together. This illustration
has many pieces which are fairly unique and easy to distinguish. In the first cut
line example, the umbrella pieces may be difficult for some users to arrange and
piece together. In the second example, the same effect is achieved, but fewer
pieces are used resulting in a simpler design to assemble.
example 1 example 2
© 2013 Silhouette America, Inc. All rights reserved. www.silhouetteamerica.com • 3
TIP: Cutting Restrictions
While the Silhouette can cut designs small or large, the average design is cut somewhere around three to four
inches across. When creating intricate designs with small pieces, consider how the design will work at all
sizes. If any piece of a design is less than 1/8” (3.2 mm) across when sized to three or four inches it may be
rejected for lack of real usability.
Exception: When intricate designs are used in cut lines intended to create holes in a larger shape, smaller
widths will be tolerated.
Sketch design thumbnails should follow all standard rules listed on page 1. The .svg file should contain sketch
lines with no fill and a stroke width of 0.1 pts and color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0,0,1). In these designs
there are no restrictions as to how the sketch lines overlap. Be aware that the fewer the colors used in the de-
sign the easier it is for consumers to use. Each sketch design .svg file should also include a matte used to cut
the sketched design out. The matte can be easily made by creating an offset path of the entire sketch object.
The matte should follow the same specifications of stroke width and color and should be placed next to the
sketchable object rather than on top of it. Please refer to the following example.
Rhinestone templates
Certain Silhouette designs are intended to be used as templates for Silhouette heat transfer rhinestones.
When these templates are cut in specific sizes, Silhouette rhinestones can easily be brushed into the tem-
plates’ holes and can then be easily transferred to a variety of projects. For a step-by-step walkthrough on
how Silhouette rhinestones work, please refer to the Rhinestone Starter Guide available at
http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/media/docs/instruction-guide_rhinestones.pdf. Rhinestone templates
are essentially a series of specifically-sized circles.
Rhinestone template thumbnails should consist of a series of filled non-overlapping circles using any combi-
nation of the following available rhinestone colors: clear (usually represented with a light grey), cobalt blue,
citrine yellow, red, orange, amber, emerald green, pink, aqua, black, champagne and metallic.
Rhinestone template .svg files should contain the same series of non-overlapping circles with no fill and a
stroke width of .1 pts and a color of 0x000001 (RGB: 0,0,1). Rhinestones are currently available in three
sizes (10ss, 16ss and 20ss) and should only be represented in the cut file with those specific sizes. The exact
dimensions of each of these sizes is as follows:
• 10ss = .13 inches
• 16ss = .16 inches
• 20ss = .21 inches
© 2013 Silhouette America, Inc. All rights reserved. www.silhouetteamerica.com • 5
Example:
thumbnail cut file
It is critical that the holes in the rhinestone templates be exactly the sizes prescribed in this document.
Rhinestone templates cannot be resized, so create the design with its final dimensions in mind.
The rhinestone template thumbnail should exactly mimic the cut file with the exception that the cirlces should
be filled instead of stroked as mentioned in this section.
Example: thumbnail