- What it is
- A length of steel rule is bent to the outline, set into a slotted plywood forme, and pressed through the stack. The same forme can carry cutting rule, creasing rule and perforating rule at once, which is why a die-cut piece is usually also a scored piece. It makes everything a straight blade cannot: a curve, a slot, a window, a silhouette, a card seat inside a folder, the net of a box. The forme is tooling — it is made once for a new shape and kept, so a repeat of the same shape starts from a tool that already exists.
- What it is printed on
Almost anything, but the shape decides the sheet. Light card curls at a tight radius and heavy board needs a keener rule and more pressure. Kraft shows a slightly fibrous cut edge, which on that stock reads as intentional. Laminated stock cuts cleanly but blunts rule faster. Synthetic stock cuts well and tears badly, which matters the moment a perforation is added to the same forme.
- Uncoated woodfree, 400 gsm0.55 mmHeavy enough to hold a shape and open enough to cut cleanly without polishing the edge.
- Kraft board, 350 gsm0.46 mmThe cut edge is fibrous and brown, which on this stock is part of the look rather than a fault in it.
- Matt art card, 350 gsm0.36 mmThe predictable option, and the one that takes a crease in the same forme without cracking.
- How it feels
- A die-cut curve is very slightly softer under a fingertip than a guillotined straight edge, because the rule pushes the fibre aside as it cuts rather than shearing it. On a heavy board the edge is square and slightly burnished; on an uncoated sheet it has a fine tooth. A window cut into a cover changes how the whole piece is held — hands go to the aperture.
- What it suits
- Swing tags, sleeves, folders with a card slot, shaped invitations, presentation covers with a window, and every packaging net. It does not suit sharp internal corners, which come back radiused whatever the file says, or thin spikes and islands, which either tear off or refuse to strip out of the waste. It does not suit a shape that changes between reruns, because each new outline is a new tool.
- Lead time
- Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days. A cutting forme, a foil block, an embossing die or a screen made for the first time is made before anything can run; a tool already held is not.
- The common mistake
- Drawing a shape a steel rule cannot be bent to, and drawing it on the artwork layer. Rule bends to a radius rather than to a point, so every internal corner arrives with a curve in it, and anything narrower than about 2 mm is fragile in the tool and fragile in the finished piece. Supply the cutter as a separate vector path on its own named layer at the finished size, radius the internal corners deliberately, and bleed the artwork past the cut line so a small shift does not show a white edge.
Print idea
Die-cut shapes
Steel rule bent to a shape, set into a forme and pressed through the sheet. It makes the cuts a guillotine cannot make, and the shape you get is the shape a rule can be bent to.
Standard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
What die-cut shapes is
A length of steel rule is bent to the outline, set into a slotted plywood forme, and pressed through the stack. The same forme can carry cutting rule, creasing rule and perforating rule at once, which is why a die-cut piece is usually also a scored piece. It makes everything a straight blade cannot: a curve, a slot, a window, a silhouette, a card seat inside a folder, the net of a box. The forme is tooling — it is made once for a new shape and kept, so a repeat of the same shape starts from a tool that already exists.
Almost anything, but the shape decides the sheet. Light card curls at a tight radius and heavy board needs a keener rule and more pressure. Kraft shows a slightly fibrous cut edge, which on that stock reads as intentional. Laminated stock cuts cleanly but blunts rule faster. Synthetic stock cuts well and tears badly, which matters the moment a perforation is added to the same forme.
- The cut contour, at finished proportion.
The specification
Six fields, and the last one is the useful one.
The same six questions are answered for every entry in this section, in the same order, so two objects can be compared without reading two pages of prose. The mistake is stated last and stated plainly, because it is the one that costs a reprint and it is the reason this page is worth sending to a colleague.
Where this sits.
Every entry is indexed three ways, because a buyer arrives knowing the occasion, the object or the material and almost never all three.
- Format
- Material and effect
Also worth looking at
- Perforation and scoringStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Coloured-core swing tagStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- Kraft and uncoated textureStandard turnaround is 7–14 working days.
- FlyersThe specification, and how it is quoted
- PostcardsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- CalendarsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- FoldersThe specification, and how it is quoted
- StickersThe specification, and how it is quoted
- PackagingThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Paper bagsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Tissue packsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Corporate giftsThe specification, and how it is quoted
- StandeesThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Point of saleThe specification, and how it is quoted
- Every print idea, indexed three waysThe section index
- The materials libraryCaliper, weight and what each finish costs
Send the specification for this, and it comes back quoted.
Every job is quoted from its specification — stock, quantity, sides, finish, size and deadline.
- Quantity
- Stock — or the feel you want, if you do not know the stock
- Sides printed
- Finish
- Flat and finished size
- The deadline
Artwork is welcome but not required to start. Email sales@ezprint.com.sg if you would rather attach files.