How to Set Up a Cut Line for Die Cut Stickers

If you have been asked to supply a cut line and you are not sure what that means, this is the guide. It covers what a cut line is, how to build one in Illustrator, and the handful of mistakes that cause most files to come back for changes.

Worth saying up front: you do not have to do any of this. Send clean artwork and we will build the cut path for you, then show you where it falls on your free digital proof. But if you want control over exactly where the blade goes, here is how it works.

What a cut line actually is

A cut line is a vector path that tells the cutter where to cut. It is not printed. It exists only as an instruction.

For a die cut sticker, the cut line is usually your artwork outline expanded outward by a few millimetres, which gives the sticker a clean border and keeps the blade away from your detail. For a square or circle sticker, it is simply that shape.

The key idea is that the cut line and the printed artwork are two separate things living in the same file.

Setting one up in Illustrator

1. Start with clean artwork

Your design should be vector where possible, with a transparent background. If you are working from a raster image, it needs to be high resolution with the background already removed, not just hidden behind a white box.

2. Create a spot colour swatch

Open the Swatches panel and create a new swatch. Name it CutContour. Set the Colour Type to Spot Colour. Give it a bright colour you would never use in the artwork, magenta being the usual choice, so you can see it clearly against your design.

The spot colour is what identifies the path as a cut instruction rather than something to print. CutContour is the naming convention used across most of the print industry, so a file set up this way will be understood by almost any printer, not just us. If you have been given a different swatch name to use for a particular job, use that one instead.

3. Build the path

Select your artwork and use Object > Path > Offset Path. An offset of 2mm to 3mm suits most designs. This creates a new path sitting outside your artwork, following its shape.

If the offset produces a messy result with lots of internal nooks, simplify it. A cut line that traces every small notch in your design will look busy and can be fragile once cut. Smoother is usually better.

4. Style the path correctly

Select your new offset path. Set the stroke to your CutContour swatch. Set the fill to none. Stroke weight does not matter much, but keep it thin, around 0.25pt, so it does not obscure your view.

Fill set to none is the step people miss. A filled path will sit over your artwork and hide it.

5. Put it on its own layer

Create a layer named CutContour and move the path onto it, above the artwork layer. This makes it unambiguous for anyone opening the file.

6. Save as PDF or AI

Save as a PDF with Illustrator editing capabilities preserved, or as a native AI file. Do not flatten. Flattening merges the cut path into the artwork and defeats the whole exercise.

The mistakes that cause most reprints

Cut line too close to the artwork. Cutting is accurate but not infinitely so. A path sitting right on the edge of your design risks clipping it. Leave 2mm to 3mm of breathing room.

No bleed. If your design has a coloured background, extend it about 2mm past the cut line. Without bleed, any small movement during cutting leaves a thin white sliver along one edge. This is the single most common file problem we see.

Fine detail near the edge. Thin spikes, hairline serifs and delicate protrusions do not survive cutting well. Either thicken them or let the cut line pass around them rather than following them.

Text too close to the cut. Keep type at least 3mm inside the cut line. Text that runs to the edge looks cramped even when the cut is perfect.

Multiple stray paths. One cut line per sticker. Leftover paths from earlier versions confuse the cutter and slow your job down.

RGB colour. Not a cut line issue, but worth mentioning while you are in the file. Set your document to CMYK before exporting. Bright blues and greens are the ones that shift most noticeably when converted for print.

If you do not use Illustrator

Affinity Designer: the same approach works. Create a spot colour named CutContour and use the contour tool to build the offset path.

Canva, Photoshop, Procreate: these cannot produce a true vector cut path. Export your design at high resolution with a transparent background and let us build the cut line. This is completely normal and most files arrive this way.

What happens next

Once your file is with us, a real person checks it before anything is printed. If the cut line needs adjusting, or if there is no cut line at all, we will build or fix it and show you the result on a digital proof. Nothing goes to print until you have approved it.

More detail on file setup is in the artwork guide. If you are still deciding on dimensions, the sticker size guide covers that, and die cut vs kiss cut explains why the cut line matters in the first place.

When you are ready, price your die cut stickers using the calculator on the product page.