The shape a label
is cut to and the lines that frame it
Nine silhouettes with deep control over the geometry, as many concentric frame lines as the job wants, and four things you can do to the edge. No text inside — that belongs in whatever you finish the artwork in. 完全免费。 真的免费。
- Nine silhouettes.
- Cartouche, tablet, arched panel, shield, swing ticket, banner — and the three plain ones that do most of the work.
- Frames that never cross.
- Every line is the same silhouette built smaller, not an offset of the one outside it.
- A real die line.
- A spot named CutContour, set to overprint, on its own layer.
- Cut to the size you asked for.
- Ornament stands on the base of the shape, so a point never grows the blank past its box.
- Four edge treatments.
- Scalloped, cogged, pinked and waved, and they compose with all nine shapes.
- Vector out.
- SVG and PDF at true size in millimeters, with bleed.
What it makes
Six things it does that a shape library does not
A folder of vintage frames is a folder of decisions somebody else made at a size that is not yours. This is the geometry, with the handles left on.
Thirty-six of them, and every handle is on the panel
- Cartouche, shield, crest, seal, tag, ribbon, bottle, keystone and on
- Rounded rectangle, oval and capsule for the everyday work
- Only the handles a silhouette actually reads are shown
- Turn the whole thing to any angle
As many as the job wants, and none of them cross
- Each line is the same silhouette built smaller
- Weight, dash and gap per line
- Any line can carry a ground, so a frame comes out as bands
- Solid, dashed or beaded, and beading is a step in millimeters
Banners, text, rules, badges and grounds
- Banners flat, swallowtailed, folded or arched, with the words knocked out of them
- Text outlined here, straight or bent, in a font you already own
- Sunbursts cut to the silhouette, hatched panels, medallions, corners and curls
- Drag it on the page; nothing you add moves the die
A cut line a finishing house can use
- A spot color named CutContour, which is the name a RIP looks for
- Set to overprint, so it knocks no hole in the artwork
- On its own layer in the SVG too
- It is the outermost frame line and nothing else — never an ornament
In detail
The shape, the frame, the edge and the file
Nine silhouettes, and one thing they all do: come out the size you asked for.
The silhouettes
- Cartouche with a notched corner and a spur on the diagonal
- Tablet with corners bracketed inwards
- Arched panel with a shoulder the arch springs from
- Shield with a waist, swing ticket with a punched hole, banner with a swallowtail
- Rounded rectangle, oval and capsule
The frame
- Any number of concentric lines
- Each with its own inset, weight, dash and gap
- Any of them filled instead of stroked
- A punched ticket is a hole in the fill, not a disc drawn over it
The edge
- Scalloped, cogged, pinked, waved
- Count and depth, closed onto itself
- A ring of beads at an even step of arc length
- Only the handles the silhouette reads — a dead control is worse than none
Out
- SVG and PDF at true size in millimeters
- A die line as a CutContour spot, set to overprint
- Bleed
- A hard-edged shadow, in bands, that still prints
How it works
Pick the shape, set the size, add the lines, save
Four steps, and the third is where the time goes.
Pick a silhouette
Nine of them, and the panel only shows the handles that one actually reads.
Set the size
A stock die, or your own figures. What it says is what it is cut to.
Add the frame
As many lines as the job wants, each with its own weight and dash. Then the edge.
Save it
SVG or PDF, at true size, with the die line on its own layer.
Where it is used
Anywhere a shape gets cut
A label, a ticket, a badge, a plate — the outline is the same problem.
Bottles and jars
An oval or a cartouche, framed, at the size the die actually is.
Gift and seasonal
Scalloped and pinked edges, which are what a seasonal range is made of.
Swing tickets
A clipped corner and a punched hole, with material left around the punch.
Badges and medals
A cogged edge and a ring of beads, at a size a plate is made at.
Cartons
A panel to sit a mark in, drawn to the same millimeters as the dieline.
Print finishing
A cut contour a finishing house reads without ringing you about it.
Signs and plates
An arched panel or a shield, framed, ready to be routed.
Questions
What people ask
Why is there no text?
Because a label’s text is the part that changes most and is finished somewhere else. Setting it here would mean font handling, kerning and outlining — three problems that are somebody’s whole tool — and it would still have to be re-done in whatever the artwork is finished in. What comes out is the shape and the frame, as paths, ready for the text to be set over.
Are the frame lines true offsets?
No, and that is deliberate. Each line is the same silhouette built smaller, so the lines can never cross and every one is an exact curve. A true parallel of a shape with concave corners runs into itself and needs cleaning up, and a sampled offset rounds off every sharp point. The one place it is approximated is the cartouche’s corner ornament, which eases off as the lines go in — the way a draftsman draws an inner line anyway.
Will the die line actually cut?
It goes out as a spot color named CutContour over DeviceCMYK, set to overprint, and in the SVG it is a group of its own named cut. CutContour is the name a finishing house’s RIP looks for. Send the PDF and ask them to confirm — every house has its own preference, and the one thing they all agree on is that a cut line drawn in black artwork is not one.
Does a point make the label bigger?
No. Ornament stands on the shape’s own base, so a 90 × 60 label with a 4 mm point is cut 90 × 60. The alternative would make every figure on the panel a lie the moment an ornament was touched, and the die is cut from the panel.
Can I scallop a rectangle?
Yes. The edge treatments are kept apart from the silhouettes precisely so they compose: all four go on all nine. They are laid along the outline’s own normal at an even step of arc length, so on a long oval they stay the same size instead of bunching at the ends.
What about bleed?
Set it on the export tab and it is added around the artwork. A die wanders by a few tenths of a millimeter on a good day, and bleed is what keeps a white edge off the finished label.
The shape is the easy part. Getting it cut is not.
Nine silhouettes, frame lines that never cross, and a die line a finishing house reads — free, in your browser.