When a PDF is the right file
SVG is the format for cutting software. A PDF is for everything else: anyone can open it on any computer or phone, and it prints at the size it was drawn. That makes it the easy choice when the design has to leave the world of cutting machines.
- Printed templates. Print the outlines on paper to trace onto fabric, card, wood or leather, or to cut by hand with scissors or a craft knife.
- Proofs for customers. Send a decal or sticker layout to a customer who has no Silhouette software and let them check the shapes and sizes before you cut.
- Sharing and archiving. A PDF still opens in ten years without Silhouette Studio, and it shows what the .studio3 file held.
- Drawing programs. Illustrator, Affinity Designer and Inkscape open PDFs as editable vector shapes, so the PDF is another way into them.
What the PDF contains
- True size. The page is exactly the Silhouette page, or exactly the design with Just the design. A 50 mm circle is a 50 mm circle on paper.
- Exact curves. The outlines are the same Bézier curves Silhouette Studio stored, written as vector paths. Nothing is turned into a picture, so it stays sharp at any zoom.
- Colours and fills. Choose a style as for SVG: Colours as saved, Filled shapes (handy for checking which parts come off the mat) or Thin black cut lines (cheapest on ink and the cleanest to trace).
- Layers. Each Silhouette layer becomes a PDF layer with the same name. PDF readers that show layers, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, can hide one for printing. Untick a layer before downloading to leave it out altogether.
Print it at the right size
Most print dialogs shrink a page to fit the paper unless you tell them not to. In the print settings choose Actual size or a scale of 100%, not Fit to page or Shrink oversized pages. Then measure one shape you know with a ruler before you rely on the print.
If the Silhouette page is larger than your paper, a 12 by 12 inch page on A4 for example, choose Just the design so the PDF is only as big as the shapes. If the design itself is bigger than the paper, Adobe Acrobat Reader's Poster option prints it across several sheets for you to tape together.
Brother ScanNCut files too
The same button works for .fcm files from CanvasWorkspace and ScanNCut machines: open one at the top of this page and download the PDF. Cut lines and pen lines become two PDF layers.
What isn't in the PDF
As with SVG, pictures placed for print and cut are left out, effects such as emboss and offset aren't stored in the file, and line thickness comes out as a standard thin line. For a Cricut, use the SVG instead: Design Space reads it as separate cut shapes at the right size.