How to Make a Sticker
Video Tutorial -- Follows all steps of the guide (you may need to pause or rewind).
The Basics:
To prepare for printing, your image must be formatted in Adobe Illustrator. All Chapman students have access to download the Adobe Creative Cloud - see the Chapman website for more info.
You will then import your design into the copy of Versaworks on the computer connected to the Vinyl Printer-Cutter, and print!
IMPORTANT!
In order to prep your print, you NEED to download this Swatch Library here
This swatch, once applied to a shape/stroke, will tell the machine to cut along the line.
You will MOVE THIS FILE into the folder indicated on the right. The easiest way to do this is with 2 File explorers // finder windows-- one on Downloads, the other used to navigate to Swatches.
Copy the file into the Windows folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 2021\Presets\en_US\Swatches
For Macs: /Applications/Adobe Illustrator 2021/Presets.localized/en_US/Swatches
Return to Illustrator.
!! simply opening the file in illustrator does not work!!
For windows users, navigate to this folder or paste the file path in the top navigation bar of the file explorer. Once here, drag and drop or paste the Roland VersaWorks file in.
For mac users, use Finder to navigate to the folder shown. Once here, drag and drop or paste the Roland VersaWorks file in.
Starting in Illustrator
Welcome to Adobe Illustrator! Make a New Document; the size does not matter (we will change this later)
Import your image using File > Place or copy and paste it in. Move the image to the top-left corner.
With your image selected, click the Embed button on the bottom right of your window. It will change to Unembed, which is what we want to see. If it already says that, then you do not need to change anything. This ensures that if you open the file on another computer, your image will come with it.
Making a Border
Use one of the Geometry tools (Rectangle, Ellipse, etc) to make a border around your image. You may need to click and hold on the tool to access more options.
This assumes you have a geometric sticker. For organic outlines, see further below.
- Geometry Menu
Select, then click and drag on the canvas to create. Use [Shift] to make perfect squares and circles etc.
2. Adjusting
Once your shape is made, use the Pointer tool to adjust it, repositioning and editing the size. TIP: use 'v' to shortcut to the transform menu.
Prepping the File
Here we'll set up the stickers to be cut out by the Printer-Cutter. It's essential you set up your images correctly or they will not be cut out.
Appearance Tab
(if this isn't showing, enable it from the Windows tab, at top)
Be sure to open this up!
We will mostly be dealing with the STROKE property, which is the outline of your sticker-- the cut path. It is the literal path the blade will take.
Click the stroke box, then the books (Swatch Library) in the bottom left, then select "Roland VersaWorks" from the dropdown.
2. Select the magenta color, aka Cut Contour. "normal" RGB or CMYK magenta will not substitute, it must be Cut Contour. It should then appear in the recently used library for your further convenience.
3. Cut Contour should apply to the stroke, but if not, reselect the stroke and try again. (Be sure to set the fill to empty, as seen here.)
The Cut Contour color has a white corner with a dot in it, if you do not see that then you have not selected the correct color!
Stroke
1. Set the Stroke width to 0.01 or something similarly small
Your image should look something like this.
If you need the stroke a little wider for visibility, that's okay, but keeping it thin is helpful for judging accuracy.
Cropping Canvas
When you import your file into the Printer-Cutter software, it will organize in chunks, determined by the size of the artboard. Thus, to nest your designs most efficiently, You'll need to crop your document.
Resize it by going to File > Document Setup > Edit Artboards, in the top right. You can also access this feature using the Artboard Tool on the left toolbar.
For multiple stickers like this, you must put them in either separate files or separate artboards!
Go from this....
....To this!
You will have to make the same number of copies of each of these. If you want different amounts of each sticker, save them as two separate files. See the nesting section at the bottom of the page.
Export
Save as > PDF
Not the export function. Be sure to save an illustrator (.ai) version as well, in case you'd like to edit it later.
Uploading
At this stage, you'll need to switch to the connected computer.
Transfer your PDF onto a flashdrive and save it to the laptop under the folder [Ready to cut] or [stickers] etc.
Prepping the Printer
Open the VersaWorks app.
Click File, Add job to queue, and place into Queue A.
You can upload multiple different PDFs, but you only need to upload one of each. The actual print amount is changed in the settings.
Your print's name will appear in queue and show a preview (don't worry about the low quality)
Settings
DOUBLE CLICK on either the preview or the file name to access the settings.
The first menu to show up is the Media Settings tab. In here you can change scale, rotation, number of copies, etc.
Always click Get Media Width. This makes sure you're within the printable bound of the paper.
Adjust the size of your sticker under the Scaling section by changing either the W or H boxes. That will change the size of the blue box for the sticker you've selected. You can size the two stickers individually.
To adjust the number of copies, use the Copy box under the Print Properties section.
It is recommended to fill up a whole row on the paper because the machine will cut off along the width of the roll after the print so any blank space to the right of your print will be wasted.
Quality
For stickers' Media Type we typically use either Glossy Calendared Vinyl or Matte Calendared Vinyl. For materials without existing presets we either use Generic Vinyl 1 or Generic Paper (if the material is paper). Ensure the correct material is loaded in the printer!
Choose the quality of the print and, if you'd like, you can change the details and printing specifics.
General
Typically, the other sections do not matter until here.
IMPORTANT/REQUIRED: change Page Space [at top] to 0. This will help minimize wasted material. This setting reserves space after the printing area.
Check [Cut Sheet after Output] to have the machine section off your print for you. This can also be achieved with a manual sheet Cut operation, but this saves time.
Cut Controls
Occasionally, you will need to increase the number of cut passes if the blade is getting dull or you are using a thicker material.
Double check with a staff member if you need to increase the number of cut passes for stickers.
last checks!
Ensure that you see this dancing dotted line around your stickers. This indicates that the paper will be cut on that line. If you don't see the line, then your stickers will not cut out and you need to go back into your illustrator file to correctly select the cut contour.
2. Double check that the paper loaded in the machine is correct! You don't want to print stickers on poster paper or vice versa. You can verify by checking the label on the top of the printer and by asking a staff member.
Time to print
To start the print, select the printer icon at the bottom of the screen under the queue.
Under the Job Properties section you can see the print area is 615.7 x 64.1 mm. The second dimension is how much paper you are using because that is how much will be cut off the roll. Remember the Free limit for a single sticker print job is 60mm, and the total limit is 150mm.
Congrats, you have made your first sticker!
Nesting / Multiple Images
When you have multiple stickers you want to print in separate files, you can add them to the queue. Ctrl + click all of your files, right click and select Nest.
Double check your settings! Nesting can sometimes obliterate your settings if already done, and they need to be reset.
This will let the software print different PDFs on the same line, but it will unify all of your settings except for spacing and size. You won't be able to, for instance, set different amount of cut passes (although there's no reason to do this anyway)
Your nested files should look something like this, placing the stickers next to each other.
For many stickers it attempts to optimize the placement but you can move them manually in the settings if desired.
You can vary the quantity of each sticker individually unlike the multiple artboard method.