How to Use Contour In Cricut Design Space

When it comes to working in Cricut Design Space, one of the best and underutilized tools is the Contour feature. This feature allows you to manipulate and refine your designs, giving you the ability to modify your images. Whether you're working on a single-layer image, a multi-layered design, or simply trying to clean up intricate details, the Contour tool is a great feature. This guide will walk you through the ins and outs of using the Cricut Contour feature effectively, helping you unlock its full potential.

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Understanding the Cricut Contour Feature

The Cricut Contour tool is a feature within Cricut Design Space that allows you to hide or reveal individual cut lines and spaces within a design. You can find it on the right side of the window in the desktop version of Cricut Design Space towards the bottom. This means that you can choose which parts of an image will be cut by your Cricut machine and which parts will be ignored. It’s especially useful for customizing existing designs, creating new layers, or simply cleaning up parts of an image that you don’t want to include in your final project.

For example, if you have a single-color image with a lot of details, you might want to remove certain cut lines that are too delicate or unnecessary. The Contour tool allows you to do this quickly and easily, giving you a clean, polished design that’s ready to cut.

Getting Started with the Contour Tool

To use the Contour tool, start by selecting the image you want to modify. The Contour button is located at the bottom of the Layers panel on the right side of the canvas screen. However, it’s important to note that the Contour icon will only be available if your image is a single layer. If your design consists of multiple layers or grouped elements, you’ll need to ungroup or weld them into a single layer before the Contour button becomes active.

Once you’ve selected a single-layer image or one layer on a multi-layered image, click on the Contour button. This will open the Hide Contour window, where you’ll see your image with all its cut lines highlighted. From here, you can start clicking on the darker grey areas of your design to hide them. These darker areas represent the individual cut lines that you want to remove. When you click on a darker grey area, it will turn a lighter shade of grey, indicating that the cut line has been hidden and will no longer be cut by your Cricut machine. If the Contour feature does not pop up and become available this just means there isn't anything to contour! Keep in mind when you are just starting out (and even if you use this a lot) it can ber confusing when working within the contour panel. The light grey and dark grey and even darker grey can get confusing quickly. So j ust be patient and know you can click in and out while adjusting your layers.

The Hide Contour window also allows you to zoom in and out, making it easier to work on more intricate designs. This feature is particularly useful when dealing with small, detailed cut lines that might be difficult to see at a normal zoom level.

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Using the Contour Tool for Single-Layer Images

One of the most common uses of the Contour tool is to refine single-layer images. This is particularly useful when working with designs that have been downloaded from the Cricut library or other online sources. Often, these designs come with extra cut lines that you might not need for your project. The Contour tool lets you easily remove these unwanted lines, leaving you with a cleaner, more streamlined image.

For example, imagine you have a silhouette of a tree, but you want to remove the leaves and only keep the trunk. By using the Contour tool, you can hide the cut lines that correspond to the leaves, leaving you with just the tree trunk to cut. This is a great way to simplify a design and focus on the specific elements that you want to highlight.

Another scenario where the Contour tool comes in handy is when you’re working with text. If you have a design that includes editable text layers, you can use the Contour tool to hide certain letters or parts of letters, allowing you to customize the text to fit your needs. This is particularly useful if you’re working on a project that requires specific wording or a unique font style.

Enhancing Single-Layered Designs to become Multi-Layered Designs with the Contour Tool

By contouring different layers of your design, you can create separate layers for different colors, giving your project a more dynamic and visually appealing look.

To do this, start by duplicating your design as many times as needed for the number of colors you plan to use. For example, if your design has three main elements—a sun, a tree, and a surfboard—and you want each element to be a different color, you’ll need to duplicate the image three times. Once you have your duplicates, you can use the Contour tool on each layer to hide everything except the parts of the design that correspond to that color.

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For instance, on the first layer, you might hide everything except the sun. On the second layer, you might hide everything except the tree, and on the third layer, you might hide everything except the surfboard. After contouring each layer, you can assign different colors to each one, resulting in a multi-layered design that’s ready to be cut in multiple colors.

This technique is particularly effective when working with complex images that have a lot of different parts. By breaking the image down into simpler, color-coded layers, you can create a more organized and manageable design that’s easier to cut and assemble. It also allows you to experiment with different color combinations and design elements, giving you greater creative control over your project.

Troubleshooting Common Issues with the Contour Tool

While the Contour tool is relatively straightforward to use, there are a few common issues that you might encounter along the way. One of the most frequent problems is the Contour icon being greyed out. This usually happens when your design consists of grouped elements or multiple layers. To fix this, ungroup your image or weld the layers together to create a single layer. Once you’ve done this, the Contour button should become active.

If you’re working with a particularly complex image and the Contour tool isn’t giving you the results you want, try breaking the image down into simpler parts. For example, you might need to weld certain elements together before contouring them, or you might need to create separate layers for different parts of the image. This approach can make it easier to work with the Contour tool and achieve the desired outcome.

Don't worry if you aren't getting the right pieces contoured properly the first time, this is common. It takes me a few tries back and forth to get things right too!

Keep in mind the type of cut file you are using too, an SVG is going to have cleaner edges than say a PNG you are trying to break down. You might want to try using inkscape to breakdown these images for that. Inkscape is a free software download for designing similar to Adobe Illustrator. You can create your own SVG files in Inkscape and break down images easily with their trace feature. You can also do this with some of the editions of Silhouette studio. So, where as this is achievable in Cricut Design Space I also want you to keep in mind that its easily to do in other programs with a bit of learning.

Contour Trick for Monograms

This is like a little bonus hack. I like to use the contour tool to split monograms that need more space in between. You can duplicate the monogram and hide the top and any unwanted cut lines and then do the same for the bottom. This will make it so only the portions of an image are shown for both sections and you can maneuver the space in between for your text.

The Contour feature in Cricut Design Space is a powerful tool that can help you modify your cut files to make them your own. Whether you’re working on a simple project or dealing with a complex image, this feature offers a great way to manage and manipulate different parts of your design. With practice, you’ll find that the contour tool is indispensable for achieving the perfect cut every time. There are a lot of powerful tools in Cricut Design space that may take a little bit of time learning but once you do, you will become a Cricut master!

Stay Crafty!