Ways to make a sticker cutline in Adobe Illustrator, compared

There are five ways to get a cut path around sticker artwork in Adobe Illustrator: draw it by hand with Offset Path, replay that process with an action or script, upload the artwork to a browser-based cutline generator, let the RIP or cutter software extract a contour, or run a plug-in inside Illustrator. Illustrator has no built-in cutline command. Offset Path is the manual route, and CreateCutline is a plug-in that does the same job in one click. This page compares all five so you can pick the one that fits your work.

The short version

• One design, now and then: Offset Path by hand. Free, ten minutes, and you learn what a good cutline looks like.
• The same simple shapes every day: an Illustrator action. Free, but it replays fixed values and cannot look at the artwork.
• A PNG from a customer and no Illustrator skills: a browser generator. Quick, but the file leaves your machine and the output follows that service's rules, not your RIP's.
• A cutter whose software traces its own contour: use it if you already own it; the result is tied to that brand.
• Many designs, mixed vector and raster, a RIP that wants a named spot colour: an Illustrator plug-in. CreateCutline is $20 once, with a seven-day trial.

Offset Path by hand

This is the built-in method and the one every other option is imitating. Unite the shapes that form the outside edge, run Object > Path > Offset Path, clean up the result, then give it a spot-colour stroke named the way your RIP expects, usually CutContour, with no fill, on its own layer. The full procedure is in How to make a cutline in Adobe Illustrator.

Where it is the right choice. A single design, artwork that is already one clean vector shape, or a job where you want to place every anchor yourself.

Where it breaks down.

• Disconnected pieces each get their own outline. A logo made of a mark and a wordmark becomes two or three cutlines until you bridge them by hand.
• Raster artwork has to be traced first, and Image Trace output needs cleaning before it offsets well.
• Sharp corners produce spikes and narrow valleys produce overlaps, and both need fixing after the offset.
• The swatch, the overprint setting and the layer are set up again for every file, which is where the spelling errors that make a RIP print the magenta line come from.

Cost: nothing. Time: five to twenty minutes per design, depending on the artwork.

An Illustrator action or script

Record the Offset Path step, the swatch and the layer once, then replay it. Scripts shared on forums do the same with a little more logic.

Where it is the right choice. A shop that cuts the same kind of simple shape every day and wants the swatch and layer created consistently.

Where it breaks down. An action replays the values you recorded. It cannot choose an offset for the size of the artwork, decide between a contour and a rectangle, join separated pieces into one path, or trace a placed image. Anything the manual method needs a human decision for still needs one here.

Cost: nothing. Time: seconds per design, plus whatever the artwork still needs by hand.

A browser-based cutline generator

A web page where you upload the artwork and download it with a cutline added. Two kinds exist. Sticker printers offer them so that customers can send print-ready files: Stickerit's cutline generator takes JPG, PNG, PDF or EPS, returns a vector file with the contour, and gives five free credits against an email address, with the file meant to go back into a Stickerit order. Standalone tools such as stickers-cut.com take most raster and vector formats and return a PDF with a pure magenta contour; previewing is free and downloading needs an account that is approved by hand. Not every printer has one: Sticker Mule draws the cut line for you when you order and shows it on a proof, and StickerApp asks for a spot swatch named die cut rather than CutContour, which is the naming point above in practice.

Where it is the right choice. You do not have Illustrator, the artwork is a single image, and the sticker is being printed by the company whose generator you are using, or by a shop that has told you a magenta contour in a PDF is enough.

Where it breaks down.

• The artwork is uploaded to a third party. For a customer's logo that may not be acceptable.
• The output follows the generator's specification: its offset, its file format and its cut-line colour. Stickerit's file is made for a Stickerit order, and stickers-cut.com describes its contour as pure magenta without documenting a spot-colour name. If you run your own RIP, open the file in Illustrator and check that the contour is a spot colour with the name the RIP expects before assuming it will be recognised as a cut.
• It is a step outside Illustrator, so the result comes back as a file to be placed rather than a layer in the document you are working on.
• Free has limits: credits, an email address, or an account that someone approves by hand.

Cost: nothing, within those limits. Time: a minute per design, plus re-import.

Contour tools in RIP or cutter software

Some device software can build a contour itself. Mimaki's FineCut plug-in has a frame-extraction feature, some SAi Flexi editions can trace a contour from a bitmap edge, and cutter utilities from other makers have similar options.

Where it is the right choice. You already own the device and its software, and every job goes to that one device.

Where it breaks down. The contour is created in, and often only understood by, that brand's workflow. A shop that sends work to more than one RIP, or sells files to customers who print elsewhere, still needs a cutline that lives in the Illustrator file as an ordinary spot-colour path. Roland VersaWorks, ONYX and Caldera, for example, expect the cut path to arrive in the file rather than generating one.

Cost: included with the device. Time: depends on the tool.

An Illustrator plug-in

A plug-in runs inside Illustrator, reads the artwork that is open and writes the cutline into the same document. CreateCutline is one; this is what it does, and what it does not.

What it does.

• Works from vector artwork or placed raster images such as PNGs and JPGs.
• Picks a contour or a rectangle automatically, or lets you choose contour, rectangle, circle or oval.
• Sets the offset automatically from the size of the artwork, or takes an exact value, including a negative value for a thru-cut.
• Keeps the separate pieces of one logo together in one closed path, and gives separate designs on a sheet their own cutlines.
• Puts the result on its own top-level Cutline layer as one closed path with an overprinting CutContour spot-colour stroke, the form Roland VersaWorks, Mimaki RasterLink, ONYX, Caldera and Epson Edge Print recognise.
• Leaves the source artwork untouched.

What it does not do. It does not add registration marks, drive the cutter, or replace the RIP. Those stay with the production software you already use, and the guides by printer and RIP cover that part for each device.

Cost: $20 once, after a seven-day trial with every feature. Time: one click per design.

Which should you use?

If you are learning, or the job is one clean vector shape, use Offset Path and keep the plug-in money. If you have no Illustrator and a printer's own generator, use it for that printer. If the artwork arrives in every state a customer can send it, the RIP wants a named spot colour, and the work is daily, an Illustrator plug-in is the option built for that.

Cutline method questions

Does Adobe Illustrator have a built-in cutline tool?

No. Illustrator has no command that creates a cut contour. The built-in route is Offset Path plus a spot-colour swatch, which is the manual method described above. Cutline creation inside Illustrator otherwise comes from a plug-in, a script or a device maker's own plug-in.

Can I make a cutline from a PNG in Illustrator?

Yes, in two ways. Manually, run Image Trace on the placed image, expand it, unite the result and offset it. Or use a plug-in that traces the placed image itself; CreateCutline builds a vector cutline from a placed PNG or JPG without expanding the image.

Is a cutline from an online generator usable with my own RIP?

Sometimes. The path has to arrive as vector data with a spot colour whose name matches what your RIP expects, and each generator sets its own name and format. Open the downloaded file in Illustrator and check the swatch before sending the job.

Do I need a plug-in to make cutlines?

No. Everything a plug-in produces can be built by hand. A plug-in is worth paying for when the hand-built version costs more of your time than its price, which usually means several designs a day or artwork that arrives as raster.

Try the plug-in route on your own artwork

CreateCutline is a $20 one-time purchase for Adobe Illustrator with a seven-day full-featured trial. Open your artwork, press Create Cutline, and compare the path with the one you would have drawn.

Download free trial

Buy - $20

CreateCutline is independent software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe, Mimaki, SAi, Stickerit, stickers-cut.com, Sticker Mule, StickerApp, or any other printer, cutter, RIP, sticker printing company or online tool named on this page. Details of third-party tools were checked on their own pages on 14 September 2026 and may change.