# Difficulty discerning between "Contour Cutter" or regular vinyl cutter.



## ChrisAdam (Mar 21, 2009)

Hi there,
As I research growing beyond JetPro into vinyl for Tee's - despite reading and reading the posts - I am having a heck of a time discerning the specific difference between a vinyl cutter that does contour cutting and one that does not.
It seems that if you import a graphic into a non-contour cutter's software, how would it know that it is not a graphic you did in the software originally? In other words, can the software/cutter be fooled into thinking it IS a contour cutter? If a non-contout unit can cut out fancy graphics, what's the difference if you import a fancy graphic?
Don't know if this makes sense, but I can't seem to nuance the differences. Any help is appreciated!


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## MotoskinGraphix (Apr 28, 2006)

All cutters have an ability to do contour cuts. The difference say in a cx-24 and a gx-24 from Roland is the latter has an optic eye to pick up registration marks specifically for contour cutting. The cx is a manual setup and it isnt easy or perfect.

If you want to contour cut printed materials get a true contour cutting machine with optic registration.


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## ChrisAdam (Mar 21, 2009)

Thanks for the reply. But although I do grasp the optic eye sensor concept and registration marks, please offer some scenarios/examples of usages and how using one differs from using the other. The more specific the better would be appreciated.


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## theflowerboxx (Mar 26, 2007)

Cutting something that is not printed out first does not require an optical eye. The optical eye is only for printed material to be cut out automatically. You can still contour cut with a machine that does not have an optical eye but it is tedious and requires alot of practice and patience.


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## midwaste (Apr 8, 2008)

The difference between the two types of contour is this:

Higher-end systems have an optical eye that will "look" at the printed vinyl loaded into the machine and automatically follow the edges of the printed graphics, no matter where they are located.

Lower end systems require you to print registration marks that look like targets on your sheet. When you load the printed vinyl into the cutter, the cutter head has something to line up with the printed reg marks, mine has a laserpointer installed in the cutter head. You will have already set up your cutting software with cut outlines around the printed graphics. By telling the cutter where the two or more registration marks are, the cutter then knows where the vinyl is with regard to the cut outlines. When you hit cut, it cuts those outlines, regardless of where the actual printed graphics are. So, if the cutter gets a bit off, or you aren't very precise in calibrating the cutter to the reg marks, the cut lines will be off slightly.

If you are going to do a lot of contour cutting, I would go with the optical eye.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

go to youtube and check out Josh Ellsworth video on contout cutting...this should clarify...for example...you have a jpg that you want to cut around the image on the paper you printed on..a cutter with optic eye can do this...avoids scissors method!...you will need to use an opaque paper or put a backing on the image..works gread


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