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Clever Someday

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Saving printables (PDF, JPG or PNG) from Silhouette Studio

November 6, 2014 by Kay

Many have discovered that Silhouette Studio is a great tool for designing print projects such as chalkboard art and other frameables. Silhouette Print and Cut enthusiasts also want to outsource their printing sometimes to save money or work around home printer issues. But its not immediately obvious how to get high resolution files saved out of Silhouette Studio so you can share them with others or have them printed remotely. I’ve prepared a series of videos to show how to do this.

For Windows to save for standard or large prints:

Staples, Office Depot, etc usually prefer PDF format while photoprocessors like Walgreens, Costco, etc. require JPG format (follow same instructions as in video but select JPG instead of PNG). If you are publishing a printable for home printing, PNG is the generally preferred format.

Important: New versions of PDF Creator do not support high resolution output. Please download version 1.7.3 from this link. Do not download this or any other software if your virus and anti-malware software is not active and up to date or if you are not familiar with safe downloading practices.

Note to Windows 10 users: PDF printing is built in, but you may need to activate it. To do this open the Control Panel and navigate to Programs > Programs and Features. Click on Turn Windows feature on or off in the sidebar and make sure that Microsoft Print to PDF is checked.

For Windows, to outsource your printing for print and cut projects:

PDF format must be used for print and cut. Any PDF printer will work. Be sure that you let the tech know to print at 100%, not fit to margins, etc.

For Mac, to save for standard or large prints and to solve the “grid problem”:

The above procedure would also be used for print and cut. All necessary software is built in to a Mac.

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Comments

  1. Cheryl Cook says

    October 18, 2015 at 1:10 am

    thank you this was very helpful so glad I found this i just spent a few hours making something in the studio that I wanted to print for my son for school and was devastated when I realized i googled and found you!

  2. Yolanda says

    October 19, 2015 at 5:31 am

    Thank you so much! super helpful 🙂

  3. Barb says

    October 29, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    I just followed the link for the PDF Creator and I don’t see the 1.7.3. version. The oldest version is 1.9.4. Is there another option to do this? It is really cool!

    • Kay says

      October 29, 2015 at 2:57 pm

      It seems that link, and my backup link, have been removed 🙁 I am not sure when the high resolution PDF capability was removed from PDF Creator. You might try version 1.9.4 and see if it is still there.

    • Kay says

      January 8, 2016 at 1:40 pm

      The backup link is working again and I have added it back in to this post.

  4. Cathy says

    November 16, 2015 at 7:11 am

    Is there a way to save the images you have drawn to a PDF without filling in the lines? I want to create a colouring book so would like all the lines “empty” but when I send the PDF to print there are obviously no lines showing.

    • Kay says

      November 16, 2015 at 1:13 pm

      Yes. Simply increase the line thickness under the line styles button. Anything greater than zero will print.

      • Cathy says

        November 17, 2015 at 1:42 am

        Thanks. I will give that a try!

  5. Lotte says

    November 24, 2015 at 11:55 am

    Thank you for the solution of the grid issue! The grid did actually print and I have spent 2 months finding a solution. I am very grateful you have uploaded this video! This now means I can make my dividers for my store with the curio and it will save me tons of time! Thanks!

  6. Angela says

    March 8, 2016 at 11:54 am

    THANK YOU for this!!! The lines on the Mac have been bothering me forever! I have been trying to make birthday invites using my silhouette program and when I print them off as a jpeg, the lines are always there. Really appreciate this tutorial.

  7. Lisa says

    March 23, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    If I upgrade from the basic software will I still have to do the work around for the grid problem when saving as a PDF from my Mac?

    BTW. You’re a genius! I’ve used many of your tutorials and especially love the Inkscape one’s.

    Thanks,
    Lisa

    • Kay says

      March 23, 2016 at 3:22 pm

      Unfortunately, the grid workaround is necessary for all Mac versions.

  8. Leena says

    April 17, 2016 at 1:37 am

    Say I need to print my finished work out as an 8×10 image would I need to change anything or keep it exactly like the video

    • Kay says

      April 17, 2016 at 7:53 am

      That depends on where you are having it printed and what size paper you are having it printed on. You can have an 8 x 10 image printed on 8.5 x 11 paper at Staples, for example without changing the settings from what you normally use, but if you want and 8 x 10 image printed on 8 x 10 photo paper at Walgreens, for example, you should change the page size to 8 x 10.

      • Leena says

        April 17, 2016 at 11:29 am

        Thank you!!!!! 🙂

  9. Barbara Edeker says

    April 20, 2016 at 1:51 pm

    Thank you for this video very helpful….

    • Diana says

      April 22, 2016 at 7:32 pm

      I cant seem to find the pdf creator

      • Kay says

        April 22, 2016 at 7:53 pm

        It seems to be a moving target. Here is the latest link I have http://download.pdfforge.org/download/pdfcreator/1.7.3/PDFCreator-1_7_3_setup.exe?file=AMIfv97kLO8VoYDocnkmGfZ6Ob00JYesPQ51EAvgTbKXr0r8I5PnbSLpICS5p8m8VIP1EEkRfg0Crm4pWqkE3-JjamrrE8nI-xg5kR1phY8TiXWLDdJJbeLZRxC9uXZxi-qv46n9r-ekW2F4QQn3b4nh9WBsvAzbA7EP15qiEefN40wWr8w4pK4&download

  10. Ranai says

    May 18, 2016 at 1:22 am

    Bless you for this post! I was about to rip my hair out with those stupid grid lines.

  11. Kate Schartel Novak says

    May 27, 2016 at 2:40 pm

    Hi there!

    Following directions to a T and Silhouette freezes every time I go to save. Any insight?

    • Kay says

      May 27, 2016 at 2:48 pm

      Hi Kate. Printing to PDF is the same as printing (Silhouette Studio doesn’t know the difference) so if it is a large file it can take a long time to process (I have heard reports of up to 30 minutes). So be sure you have given it plenty of time before you give up on it.

      • Kate Schartel Novak says

        May 27, 2016 at 2:51 pm

        Okie dokie…thank you for that information. I will hit Save as PDF again and go make and eat a snack or six. LOL

  12. Caroline says

    June 10, 2016 at 2:07 pm

    Hi
    I am trying to print a silhouette file to PDF and came across your blog. Every time I print on my Mac it only prints the images (pumpkins) and not the wording on my invitation. Can you help me?

    • Kay says

      June 10, 2016 at 2:20 pm

      Hi Caroline. Yes, I can help. For some reason, Silh Studio defaults text to not print. To get it to print, you will need to fill it with a color (Paint Bucket button, not line color). This is the preferred method, but you can also check the box that says “print lines of selected shapes” or increase the line thickness, both under the line styles button.

      • Caroline says

        June 10, 2016 at 2:44 pm

        I’m sorry, I am still very new to Silhouette. I’ve only played with vinyl cuts so far so all of the features are still very new to me. I changed the color of the text when I created my invitation using that paint can at the top (I have brown and orange wording) as well as two pumpkins. If I select all, it still only prints the two pumpkins with no wording. I have the designer addition if that helps. I’ve also posted this question on facebook groups with no luck yet. Thank you for responding so quickly!

        • Caroline says

          June 10, 2016 at 2:59 pm

          I got it! Thank you so much!!!!

  13. Debbie Christianson says

    July 13, 2016 at 1:26 pm

    I have an interesting problem. I do not see the grid lines (Mac) on the preview screen. When I go to “save” or “export” the file to a PNG and then click on it later to check it out, there are clearly grid lines there. I uploaded the image to a t-shirt printer and the grid lines show on their mock print-up, so I’m afraid to put in the order thinking that the grid lines WILL print. Help!!! 🙂

    • Kay says

      July 13, 2016 at 3:26 pm

      Did you follow the steps in the Mac video? Be sure to use at least 300 dpi when you export the PNG from the original PDF.

      • Debbie Christianson says

        July 14, 2016 at 7:19 am

        That was EXACTLY the problem. You are brilliant!!!! Thank you so much!

  14. Desirae says

    July 30, 2016 at 7:09 pm

    Thank you so much for your tutorial! Question- when I try and save an 8×10 PDF it cretaes a border in the preview mode and saves the border once I export to a PNG. My design page is set to 8×10 and so is the page set-up. Do you have any idea as to what could be causing this?

    • Kay says

      July 30, 2016 at 7:12 pm

      I do not know what is causing it (I would have said you have page setup on Letter, but you already checked that), but I do know an easy fix. Once you export to PNG, you can crop it back to 8 x 10 easily in Preview.

  15. Kat says

    September 13, 2016 at 2:03 am

    Using imac and macbook pro and those gridlines on my pdf files have been driving me crazy. thank you so, so much for this post! Great help!

  16. Filipe says

    September 18, 2016 at 12:33 pm

    I want to be able to convert cutting lines on Studio 2 or 3 to something that can be edited on CorelDraw! (PDF would be fine). Do you know if this method can also “print” the cut lines? I own a PC running Win 7 x64.

    • Kay says

      September 18, 2016 at 9:47 pm

      Because Silhouette has disabled vector output, the files generated through virtual printing are bitmap images. They can be imported into Corel Draw, but they will have to be autotraced before they can be edited.

  17. Jennifer says

    December 26, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    Thanks so much for this tutorial for the Mac. I had tried a bunch of different things, but I hadn’t tried exporting to PNG and back to PDF. Excellent! Thank you so much! Those gridlines have been driving me nuts for years now. It’s very frustrating that this workaround is necessary and hasn’t yet been corrected by Silhouette, but I’m glad to have a way around it since I don’t use print and cut all that often.

  18. Karen Rilstone says

    February 26, 2017 at 1:58 pm

    Hi, I was watching your video on using the PDF creator, then noted that the newer editions don’t use high res. When I looked at my PC re save to PDF using the windows 10 instructions, I noticed that my options don’t include saving as PNG. So would my best option be to try an earlier edition of PDF creator? or am I missing something. I did go to the advanced tab.

    • Kay says

      February 26, 2017 at 6:56 pm

      You basically have 2 choices if you need PNG. Either install the earlier version of PDF Creator or use the Windows 10 save to PDF and then convert the PDF to PNG with an online converter like cloudconvert.

  19. Karen Rilstone says

    March 2, 2017 at 5:08 pm

    Thanks, Kay. I was able to download the earlier version of PDF Creator and it worked. I appreciate your info. Will also check out cloudconvert.

  20. joana says

    March 20, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    Hi , the lines still coming what should I do? ( I have a MAC) TIA

    • Kay says

      March 20, 2017 at 7:30 pm

      Be sure you are not reopening the original PDF. That is the most common cause of this not working. Also be sure you set the dpi to at least 300 dpi.

  21. Stacey says

    May 25, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    I am doing a sign for my twins for their last day of school. I used the same exact signs for the beginning of school and just changed up some info. One of them converted to pdf perfectly, but the other sign keeps cutting off a lot of the sign. I have even shrunk the sign to be smaller than the mat, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Paper size is set to letter. I don’t know what could be going wrong with the second sign. Any ideas on how to get it to print the whole design?

    • Kay says

      May 25, 2017 at 1:42 pm

      Be sure you check page size in both places (printer settings and Silh Studio) also check orientation (portrait vs landscape) and scaling.

  22. Tina says

    June 26, 2017 at 1:45 pm

    Hi Kay, I am using an older version of sil-st. DE 3.6.57 (I do not want the cloud version) and still this trick does not work anymore. (I think it worked some time ago. MacOS 10.10? now I use 10.11) I do not have an export option and even when i exported it I got the lines on the print, so I always have to make a screen shot – lousy quality. Hope there is a solution. thanks for your help

    • Kay says

      June 26, 2017 at 3:13 pm

      Hi Tina. I am using MacOS 10.11 and 10.12 (with multiple versions of Silh Studio including 3.6.057) and Preview still has Export in both of them under the File Menu. Don’t forget to change the resolution to at least 300 dpi and to be sure you aren’t re-opening the first PDF. Missing either of those steps can keep this from working.

    • Tina says

      June 26, 2017 at 8:02 pm

      what i do:
      open the silh file,
      1 – print,
      open in preview,
      export as png, – done
      2 – open the png
      and there, the lines are there.

      • Tina says

        June 26, 2017 at 8:11 pm

        thanks a lot!, that was it
        – resolution to at least 300 dpi –
        I changed the export to png to 600 pix/inch and the lines are very light, almost gone.
        I can chose pix/inch or pix/cm, not dots/inch
        I am very enthusiastic. that was a great help
        I use the silh for printing own designs most of the time

  23. jennifer says

    August 30, 2017 at 2:47 am

    Hello, I have created a birthday invitation on my silhouette cameo, but when I go to save the document as pdf, only certain parts actually save to the pdf document. What am I doing wrong? When I open the document on my cameo, it’s all there again. Please help!

    • Kay says

      August 30, 2017 at 7:50 am

      Please view the video for your operating system. It will explain how to change the page size of your PDF. That will take care of the problem you are seeing.

  24. marie says

    August 31, 2017 at 4:41 pm

    Hi,
    When I save my file exactly the way you described, it comes up blank in Preview…..what am I doing wrong?

    • Kay says

      August 31, 2017 at 5:04 pm

      Sounds like your shapes are not filled with color (be sure to use fill not line color, it can be hard to tell the difference for text) and/or your lines are not set to print (use print lines of selected shapes). If it won’t print, its not going to preview either.

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    May 27, 2016 at 7:00 am

    […] a PDF or a JPEG). Kay from Clever Someday has great tutorial on how to do this on a PC or Mac, so head over there to learn how if you’ve never done it before. Pay careful attention to making sure […]

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