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Old 01-01-2015, 07:52 PM
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sastampink sastampink is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: 3rd rock from the sun, milky way
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I ended up going with the cricut explore after doing a ton of comparisons. I am not regretting my purchase, I wanted something user friendly, a very accurate cut, and the circuit cuts more materials than the silhouette. I have been having amazing results with its print and cut feature. I have cut out hundreds of stickers for my planner and I have made several die cuts using digi kits. It is amazing to use for hybrid. I absolutely love being able to use my digital products for paper scrapbooking. There is very little you will need to learn to use the print then cut feature.

BUT there are glitches with the software interfacing with web browsers (which they claim they are working hard to work out but if you didn't have to log into their website this would not be an issue at all). The fact that you have to be logged into their website to cut is annoying. If you are not logged in, the machine will not function at all. It's not a huge deal for me because I don't use it everyday at this point but that is a very weak part in that system. The software interfacing with web browsers keeps throwing up flash errors so the machine won't work in certain browsers.

I have found that the print then cut feature is very limited by size. Not every browser works (safari doesn't work for me) and each browser seems to have different maximum cut sizes. So for example if I upload a file I made in PSE I have to be careful about what the maximum overall size is because in Firefox that was 6x9 but in Chrome it's more like 6x8 or 5x7 and it's super wasteful since paper is 8.5 x 11 size. (that is only for the print then cut feature though, for regular cutting you can cut 12x12 card stock)

However with that said it is much easier to use cricut right out of the box then silhouette and cricut has a built in full bleed feature that eliminates any sort of white in or around your image. The silhouette cuts on the edge and does not give as accurate a cut. See Kens Creations video on youtube for a comparison of how they both cut and the comparison of steps you need to do a print then cut project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5EAqTICXQw His video sold me on the circuit because I am primarily interested in the print then cut feature.

If print then cut is not your thing (BTW for about $150 you can get a fantastic photo quality wireless printer and scanner from canon. If your printer is not up to snuff there are great printers out there for under $200) but if you are not interested in print then cut and mostly want to work with stock cut files, then I think the silhouette has much better projects, a nicer store with better samples, and a lot more 3rd party files available.

What I would suggest is signing up with silhouette to get the free version of their software to see if you like it. To me it was way too much work. I can set up my images much easier in PSE and quickly upload the .PNG without going thru a ton of steps to get it done. I don't work in the cricut design space, but if I needed to, it's incredibly fast and more user friendly.
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Last edited by sastampink; 01-01-2015 at 07:55 PM.
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