SCAL or Design Studio

[Michi Belle]

Hi all!

I'm wanting the new Gypsy really bad, but can't afford it. Sooooooooo, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on SCAl or Design Studio. Which one would you prefer to get since the Gypsy is not an option?

I'm curious to see what everyone's answers are. Thanks for commenting!

 

[ZeroToHero]

I personally am a fan of SCAL - if you have a Mac, wait, because SCAL 2 hasn't come out for it yet, but otherwise, I like it.

I don't think you can install CDS on two computers, but you can have SCAL on a portable and a desktop, which is great.

 

[123SA]

Depends what you want to do -- I love SCAL especially for the unlimited fonts. I use dingbat fonts too, but I haven't figured out inkscape.

Design Studio I use mostly for figuring things out -- how to layer things, what size to cut, fitting many things on the mat. I find that welding and shadowing is just so much easier in SCAL, I never do it in CDS.

Custom Crops was running a sale on CDS $29.99. You may want to see if you can get a good deal on CDS, then ask SAnta for SCAL

 

[Michi Belle]

Thanks Z to H & 123SA! I appreciate that. Yes, D.Studio is only 29.99 but I here not so user friendly. Can you make handmade paper peicings with scal? I'm trying to understand what else you can use SCAL for instead of fonts.

I just don't know much about it. 123SA, Mischief_Managed told me to talk to you about SCAL, since you use it a lot. I've seen a couple things you've done on it & they are great!

 

[123SA]

Yes, you can make home made paper piecings in inkscape, a free program, and then import them into SCAL to cut. I made one. It took me way too long. It didn't work quite the way I wanted it to. Personally, I am not interested in spending time making things in computer files. I just won't invest the time to learn inkscape.

However, there are lots of sites that offer free files or files you pay for. Here are some that I like:

svgcuts.com

mardenz.blogspot.com

I think if you check out these sites, you will see what SCAL can do in addition to the fonts.

Don't underestimate the worthiness of SCAL's font, shadow, welding capabilities. It is so easy! You type the word, click shadow and you are done. You can creat different size shadows and multiple shadows. You can shadow blackout. You can type vertically. It is very much worth its price. There are tutorials for it all over - -watching some will show how easy it is and what it can do.

One thing to consider - -can you easily hook up your cricut to your computer? My wonderful DH realized that SCAL and CDS would be worthless to me without a laptop. I wouldn't be able to cut at our desktop.

morgansmom2000 is also good with SCAL - -she is really good at finding sites that offer files.

 

[ZeroToHero]

It is difficult to get the paper piecings down, but as soon as you sit down and invest some time, you learn stuff fast - there are also some good video tutorials out there (I watched one about designing a bee - that's what helped me - if you get Inkscape and SCAL I can try to find it for you).

I know the SCAL 2 is supposed to be a lot more user-friendly.... it is, as said, really hard to get all the pieces to line up for paper piecings - what I ended up doing was getting a 12x12 template for Inkscape, and building in that - so that way, all my pieces would fit together - I just had to expand the template to the correct dimensions, and I was all set.

(I can explain better if you didn't quite understand..)

 

[dogcarbon]

i love my SCAL.

check out the scal forums:
http://forums.surecutsalot.com/

and some great learning places are here:
very comprehensive for using inkscape with a dingbat and cleaning it up:
http://susanbluerobot.blogspot.com/2008/06/help-from-start-to-finish.html

Here is heatherm's tutorials on SCAL:
http://imagesbyheatherm.wordpress.com/my-scal-tutorials/

Here is heatherm's tutorials on Inkscape:
http://imagesbyheatherm.wordpress.com/my-inkscape-0-46-tutorials/

and some great fonts and shapes and dingbats... along with some videos too:
http://www.scrappingtable.com/home.html

and some great tutorials here with video:
http://pennyduncancreations.com/index.html


Those are some of the websites I have used to learn... and yeah, I am still learning!

 

[morgansmom2000]

I love SCAL too. I highly recommend it!

 

[Michi Belle]

Thanks all for helping me out with this! I'm just learning the SCAL lingo. So Dingbats & Inkscapes are fonts right?
So, what I'm confused about is, where do I get actual images from if I don't want to use my Cricut cartridges?
I saw a couple of tutorials already from the websites you all have provided me. But still not sure about it because all I could find was tutorials on fonts. I want something that I can do both on.
I'm so confused because I've never seen this before or design Studio. Thanks so much everyone for helping me with this. I would like to see some projects people have using SCAL but can't seem to find those either. I'd like to see one's of images that people downloaded not using their Cricut Cartridges. Any ideas where & how? Thanks again! Sorry to be a pain..

 

[morgansmom2000]

Dingbats and fonts are basically the same thing. Inkscape is a program you use to create and edit SVGs. I am slowly but surely learning things in Inkscape. I've used scans (of stamps) to create SVGs, I've also edited SVGs that other people made.

As far as how the carts work. You just need *a* cartridge in your Cricut, doesn't matter which one, as long as one is in there, SCAL will cut.

Here are some examples of items I cut with SCAL.

I cut the title, journal box (which was a PNG file that I edited in Inkscape to make an SVG) and the fireworks with SCAL in this page:

The title on this one:

The title and the ballerina (the ballerina is from a dingbat font) in this one:

The journal box here (I think the tag was from the Mickey Font cartridge):

The title here:

Both of these (I think the "pool" was another PNG file that I edited to make into an SVG):

This was an SVG file I bought from SVGCuts.com (an awesome store and they have amazing freebies on their blog!).

The gymnast here was my first attempt at Inkscape/SCAL:

Hope that helps!

 

[123SA]

dingbats are in the format of a font, but they are pictures (not a technical definition). Go to dafont.com and look for a dingbat font to open and you'll see what I mean.

Inkscape is a computer program.

Unless you invest time in learning inkscape, you will not be cricut cart free.

I made this Nerf title - -I copied the image from their website, opened it up in inkscape, follwed directions for a tutorial to clean it up and make an svg file, then imported into scal and cut it. Took forever because of my ineptitude.

This was a free svg file from mardenz -- thank you very much!. Which mean she took an image into inkscape and made an SVG file. I downloaded it, imported into scal and then cut it.

This is a border I made in SCAL. I used a dingbat font for the pumpkin - -it is the same pumpkin -- I just stretched it different ways -- it is acutally a jack o latern that I didn't like, so I used the black out feature to make it a pumpkin. Then I found a dingbat font of pumpkin faces and I put my own faces in there. This seems complicated when you write it, but really this was not.

 

[Michi Belle]

Dingbats and fonts are basically the same thing. Inkscape is a program you use to create and edit SVGs. I am slowly but surely learning things in Inkscape. I've used scans (of stamps) to create SVGs, I've also edited SVGs that other people made.

As far as how the carts work. You just need *a* cartridge in your Cricut, doesn't matter which one, as long as one is in there, SCAL will cut.

Here are some examples of items I cut with SCAL.

I cut the title, journal box (which was a PNG file that I edited in Inkscape to make an SVG) and the fireworks with SCAL in this page:

The title on this one:

The title and the ballerina (the ballerina is from a dingbat font) in this one:

The journal box here (I think the tag was from the Mickey Font cartridge):

The title here:

Both of these (I think the "pool" was another PNG file that I edited to make into an SVG):

This was an SVG file I bought from SVGCuts.com (an awesome store and they have amazing freebies on their blog!).

The gymnast here was my first attempt at Inkscape/SCAL:

Hope that helps!

MorgansMom2000 & 123SA, thank you sooooooo very much for taking the time to show me your great creations!!!! I think I'm going to have to get it the. So fonts also means images, not just lettering? I just wanted to make sure that it does more than just lettering. I'm still trying to figure it out, but until I get it, I don't think I will fully understand.
So you can also download a pictured clip art & cut it it the way you want it? This is great. Thanks sooovery much you guys!

 

[123SA]

MorgansMom2000 & 123SA, thank you sooooooo very much for taking the time to show me your great creations!!!! I think I'm going to have to get it the. So fonts also means images, not just lettering? I just wanted to make sure that it does more than just lettering. I'm still trying to figure it out, but until I get it, I don't think I will fully understand.
So you can also download a pictured clip art & cut it it the way you want it? This is great. Thanks sooovery much you guys!

Yes, dingbat fonts are simple images. Some are perfect for cutting, some are no good -- too detailed, the lines don't close to make a full cut, you get a double image when you open it in SCAL. It is just trial and error, but you can see the problems on your screeen, so you are not cutting over and over.. Some of the double line problems can be fixed in inkscape.

No, you can't download clip art and cut it the way you want it. You can take images into inkscape and separate the layers so that you can import it into SCAL and then cut -- this is the process I find hard to learn.

 

[Michi Belle]

Ok, that sounds good. Thanks again 123SA. I hear it's a pain to learn DS too so either way I would have to learn either one. I think I will do what you said. I'm going to treat myself to DS & ask santa for SCAL. Thanks again everyone for responding & helping me with this!