# Sticky  What is Needed to Cut a Rhinestone Template



## DivineBling

It can be very confusing as to exactly what is required in order to cut a rhinestone template.

I get people almost every day emailing me wanting to know how much it would be if they send me the cut/design file and if I can just cut it for them.

I give a quote and then they send the file and it turns out to be a bitmap. Oftentimes, I get people sending me a photo that they took of a rhinestone transfer they purchased from someone else or a rhinestone design on a shirt and they want me to cut a template from their image. I end up giving them the following information and I thought it would be good to put it up here so more people than one at a time can learn from it.

There was SO much I didn't know when I started out and SO much I have learned since then. I'm hoping to clear up some confusion for those of you who are thinking about getting into rhinestones so you understand what it takes and what we should and shouldn't do.

First: The only type of file that we can cut a rhinestone template from is called a vector. Vector files are in various formats such as eps and svg. The most common is eps. That eps needs to be made up of vector circles that are ready to be cut. These files are created in various rhinestone design programs and can take quite a bit of time. If someone truly sends me one of these files and it's ready to be sent directly to my cutter, then the price is very low reflecting the cost of the template material and a small fee for my time. However, if someone sends me a picture of a logo and wants me to create a rhinestone design from it, there are various steps to getting from their bitmap to a vector to a rhinestone design. These steps take time. Also, just because something is in eps format doesn't always mean it's a vector. I've attached some photos. The first is a bitmap in jpeg format. The second is a zoom of one of the edges. Do you see how it's totally pixelated? When you stretch a bitmap out, it becomes more distorted. The lines aren't clean. The third photo is the same heart after I vectorized it, stretched it out, and zoomed way in. The lines of a vector stay the same sharpness no matter how much you stretch it out. The rhinestones sit smoothly on the lines creating a cleaner design.

Second: I know that sometimes it's tough trying to come up with an idea of how to design something or figuring out what to design. Especially when you're starting out. However, if you buy a transfer or a shirt from someone or see a cute design on someone's website or Facebook page, that is their design. If I were to duplicate that design, it's stealing. I wouldn't want someone to take a photo off of my business Facebook page and send it to another person and ask them to make a template or a shirt out of it. That's something that I worked hard on. Also, we can't do licensed designs or logos or characters. 

If you're looking to get into this business and wanting to start out small by just buying templates because you don't want to fork out money for software and equipment, please remember that if you want something custom, it will take time and cost some money to have a designer create it for you. There are several of us on here, but I know that there are a lot more people wanting templates than are able to provide them. I know when I started out, I had NO IDEA how much work goes into creating a custom template. Sometimes a design I think will take 3 hours ends up taking me 20 minutes. And sometimes a design I think will take 20 minutes takes 2 hours. 

In summary, a true rhinestone template file goes from bitmap to vector to rhinestone software for placement or just from vector to software. Some vectors are very easy to stone and some require quite a bit of tweaking.

Finally, please please please don't ever think your question is stupid. We have all had those questions at some point. So please ask away here on the forum. If it's a question that's been asked before, someone will post a link to the thread with the answers or answer it again for you. 

That's what this forum is for and how it surpassed 1,000,000 posts in just 6 1/2 short years. I would not be where I am today if it weren't for this place and all of the stupid questions I've asked.


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## jean518

Great post Stephanie! I totally concur!


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## GHEENEE1

Great post Stephanie, now if our customers could read this, to realize how much work is involved in custom creations of all types. Mike


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## DivineBling

GHEENEE1 said:


> Great post Stephanie, now if our customers could read this, to realize how much work is involved in custom creations of all types. Mike


Oh my goodness, tell me about it! Not just the custom creations themselves, but the touch ups and tweaks after they're done, etc.


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## L144S

Well said. It is so true Stephanie, helpful as always.


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## DivineBling

Thanks, Linda! I appreciate the kind words!


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## rhinestonelady

Very helpful and positive post!


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## baddjun1

Totally agree with all you said, Stephanie. Most people don't know the amount of work and time that go into creating designs from the graphics they present us.


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## SpecMat

Great post, Stephanie! Very helpful. A lot of people don't know the difference between a vector graphic and a regular bmp, so this is helpful even for people that aren't just going to be doing rhinestones.


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## coolrosie

This is all so true. When you search templates and transfers and what people copy and say that they are their own. I truly see what you mean. I want to thank you for making the Template for me. She loved it.


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## DivineBling

coolrosie said:


> This is all so true. When you search templates and transfers and what people copy and say that they are their own. I truly see what you mean. I want to thank you for making the Template for me. She loved it.


Hi Rosie! I didn't respond to your sweet words! I'm so glad you had success with that template! One of my favorite things about this job is when I worked really hard on a design to get it just right and someone else loves it! It's always such a relief!


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## AlubysPhoto

Hi all,

Any recommendation as far as what rhistone software I can use to make my own template?
No fancy features as the entire vector files will be designed in AI and exported.

We want to go into rhinstone to complement our embroidery and screen printing services.
We have a plotter to cut in house.

Thank you in advance.

PS: If you know of any AI plugin for rhinstone, it would be wonderful.


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## Imageit

I can relate but for those that have no experience with any type of design software or file construction I truly believe they think anything will work with one button pushed. I had a customer send me a 96 dpi image that he obviously acquired from the internet and he couldn't understand why I couldnt just cut that on my Roland. I built his file in Corel manually with him watching and cut it and then imported the file he sent me and he then had a true understanding. =)


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## sparklyqueen

Thank you for the post. I have no experience with design software. I want to start a rhinestone business but am wondering if purchasing software such as BlingIt is enough to create custom designs. Does this software create the vector image or must I do it in another program?


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## artswear

AlubysPhoto said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Any recommendation as far as what rhistone software I can use to make my own template?
> No fancy features as the entire vector files will be designed in AI and exported.
> 
> PS: If you know of any AI plugin for rhinstone, it would be wonderful.


I am in a similar situation and was curious to know if you ever found a rhinestone plugin for AI? Or is it even necessary? If you create the file in AI, placing circles(for the rhinestone cuts) appropriately spaced into the design, can that file just be sent to a cutter?


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## rhinestonelady

Hi Patrice, 

Yes, you can cut the circles from ai. Or, you can have someone make you the file and export it as an ai file and send it to you. I used to cut all of my templates from an ai file onto an older Roland Camm-1. 

Hope this helps.


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## artswear

Thanks Barbara. I don't own a cutter yet, I'm looking into it, but I am pretty familiar with illustrator. Up to this point, using AI, I have created rhinestone designs by creating appropriately sized circles in illustrator for the stones and spacers, and placing them as symbols in the library. Is this how you are doing it? It would be nice if there were a plug in to illustrator that could "fill" a shape or line with appropriately sized circles, as the hand placing of circles is rather time consuming and not exact.


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## DivineBling

artswear said:


> It would be nice if there were a plug in to illustrator that could "fill" a shape or line with appropriately sized circles, as the hand placing of circles is rather time consuming and not exact.


That's how I got started making rhinestone designs but in CorelDraw. It took hours to do what takes me seconds to do now. I'm glad for the experience because it gave me a very discerning eye for spacing but I spent countless hours designing that way!

When I first started, I had no clue as to what a vector even was and I think I'd been doing rhinestone design for a couple of months before I ever even heard the term "raster" so I think you're already ahead of the curve.


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## susucosp

stephenie,

i am researching the price for a supplier for template in mesa, az, los angeles, ca, santa fe, nm local area. for example, if i give you a jpg file in letter, for example "Arizonia", i need you to vectorize it, without any modification work, and cut into a vinyl template, how much will it cost for a 4in X 7 in vinyl template? do anyone know supplier locally who cut template?

su


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## rhinestonelady

Patrice,

No, I never placed by hand...I am too impatient! 

But at one point I was using WinPC to create the rhinestone designs and exporting as an ai file. Worked well.


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## artswear

Stephanie, Thanks for the vote of confidence, lol. I'm actually an ex-software developer, so I'm good with technical issues. However, it's that same background that causes my frustration when I see how much further the industry can go with software. Illustrator is pretty much an industry standard in the commercial graphic design/advertising sectors, but I also know that CorelDraw has been around for personal desktop publishing and such for years now and that's why applications for rhinestoning, etc. have had a Corel focus. Keeping my eye out for Illustrator applications and plug-ins....

By the way, when you mention that it takes you seconds now, may I ask what system you are using? Although developing a keen eye for spacing sounds enticing, I think I may pass on that skill.. : )

Barbara, Thanks for the advice, I'll check into winPC.


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## DivineBling

I am using OOBling Pro now.


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## artswear

Thanks, I'll look into it!


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## bek416

Oobling is $650. I don't have that kind of extra money so I have been learning CorelDraw and practicing templates that way. There are many macros out there and they seem to do some things well. 



Sent wirelessly VIA Tapatalk.


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## rjdavis61

I am using corel draw x4 and want to know if there is an auto fill or macro that i can use to fill a shape with circles. I am hand placing and going nuts lol.


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## generalj

The Rhinestone World has a Corel macro that looks easy to use for rhinestones. Good luck
Jayme


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## happypour

Hi! I'm just starting out with making my own rhinestone temp's. I am wondering how I take an EPS file and size for 10ss stone's. It seem's when I go really large I can use 10ss but if I want the image to be say 7x8 or around that size it won't let me use the 10s it use's something like 1ss. I am going a bit crazy trying to get this vector just right. I am using winpcsign and silhouette software.

Thanks,
M


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## keith20mm

Two useful and rather low cost applications for making rhinestone templates are 1) Coreldraw 2018, still availabke, and in some respects, more stable than CD 2019 or 2020, along with The Rhinestone World plugin, or R-Stones plugin. RStones is lower cost. You can also use CD 2017.

These older versions can be bought new sealed from various eBay sellers.

You can also use Inkscape, freeware, and there is a rudimentary rhinestone plugin, again, free.

Next up is Digital Arts Solutions, quite expensive, and is a plugin for Corel.

Next is Sierra Designs, very expensive, and every add on feature is another pile of money, expect lots of program crashes, and still more money for support just to report bugs which seldom get fixed.

Lastly, you can just write your own code, if your cutter has GP-GL or HPGL command interface, and you commonly work with all same diameter stones, ie, you are only cutting circles.

Generally, you will be cutting circles in rhinestone flock media, a fuzzy surface material, on which you brush over stones.

Probably the easiest way to get from idea to template is to take drawing pencils or chalks, sketch your idea in strokes or lines, then make an x,y coordinate takeoff of all stones, put these into HPGL commands to cut a circle of desired diameter at every coordinate, and feed that to the cutter.

CD and RStones is probably my favorite, and I have a post process to go to both DSTech DS400-6C stone setter, and also to ProSpangle for multidecoration capability, plus I have a Roland VG-540 wide format printer cutter, so I can print HTV, then spangle over, and then rhinestone, all in perfect size-registration.

We dont cut templates anymore, here.


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## Reymond

I have been using this software for a long time:
*OOBLING PRO RHINESTONE DESIGN SOFTWARE*









OOBling Pro Rhinestone Design Software - DEMO







www.americanscreensupply.com


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