Silhouette Pixscan Tutorial

Hey folks!

I’m jumping in for a quick PixScan tutorial because I posted an Instagram photo yesterday about using it and got a few questions.

I’ll start with saying I love the technology and it has been working great for me! Every once in a while it hiccups but overall its great because I already like my Cameo and don’t need another machine for scanning and cutting.

f you aren’t familiar with PixScan, watch this video. You’ll need the PixScan mat appropriate to your device – Cameo or Portrait (affiliate links). And you’ll need Silhouette Studio V3 which has the PixScan feature.

Here is a pic to show you the process…

Steps:

1. Do your stamping then put your stamped sheet on the PixScan mat. Take a pic of the mat.
   Tip : I found it gives me best results if I stamp on a 5.5 X 8.5 sheet (half of letter size) and put in in the middle of the PixScan mat vs on an entire 8.5 X 11 (letter size) sheet.
   Tip : Take the pic when the mat is on a flat surface, preferably in plenty of light. I use an Ott light for the pic and take it on my grid mat so I can try to keep the phone straight on top. Make sure the full mat is in your pic. It doesn’t matter if there is other stuff in the pic as long as the mat is in it.
   Tip : Use the FULL pic for importing in your Silhouette Studio software. This is important because if you are taking the pic with your phone like I do, it’ll store a lot of information in the pic like aspect ratio and color mode that Silhouette Studio needs. So DO NOT crop or enhance the pic in any way. If your phone is a known device like iPhone or a recent , you don’t need to calibrate it.
2. Insert the PixScan mat in your Silhouette device.
   Tip : When inserting the PixScan mat, put it in BETWEEN the leftmost mark and the one after it. This is important to avoid offset cutting issues and failure to detect registration marks.
3. Silhouette Studio steps
   1. In Silhouette Studio, select “Open PixScan Image” then “Import from file” on the right panel and import your photo. I use AirDrop or DropBox to get the photo from my phone to my laptop (iPhone to Mac).
      Tip : Be patient till the photo is loaded. It takes some time. Once loaded, take a peek at your mat and make sure the image on the screen is the same as the one on the mat. If not, you might need to do the import again.
   2. Use the Silhouette Studio “Trace” feature to trace your image.
      Tip : Use both the high-pass and low-pass filters and play around till you get a clean selection to trace. The section you want to trace must be yellow. I mostly do a “Trace outline”.
      Tip : I like a white border around my images like a die would leave so I select the traced image and do an offset of 0.06 in around it then delete the traced image. This is what you see in the screenshot above.
   3. Before giving a cut to Silhouette, make sure your cut settings are correct. I usually check paper type, blade setting on the software and on my Cameo, speed and thickness. I know these for my cardstock now because I use the same cardstock always. If you don’t know yours, experiment on scraps first.
   4. Send the file to the device for cutting!
      Tip : Let it detect registration marks automatically. This is VERY IMPORTANT! If it fails to detect, remove mat and put it in again. Even if you have to do this a couple of times, DO NOT detect manually. You won’t get a good cut and it might spoil your mat by cutting into it!
4. Enjoy your PixScanned cuts!

This really is a super fast way of mass producing cards. I hope you will give it a try. Happy to answer questions so please ask in comments here or on my Instagram and Facebook posts!

A quick note on the stamps used here to build the cupcakes – they are my Cupcake stamps from Verve!