As a beginner have you read a Cricut Term and had no idea what in the world it means? Well, that is why I created Cricut Code: A Glossary Of Cricut Terms.
Sometimes Cricut terms are hard to understand and this handy list will help you tremendously in the years to come.
Grab The Printable Cricut Code: A Glossary Of Cricut Terms
You can either bookmark this page and come back to it whenever you need a new term or grab the PDF and print these Cricut Terms out or load them onto your iPad using good notes for even easier use!
A – Cricut Terms Adhesive Vinyl to Arrange
Adhesive vinyl — is a thin flexible material with a pressure-sensitive adhesive that can be cut in any design and applied to all kinds of smooth, hard surfaces.
Align — allows you to line up multiple objects and text in a straight line on your canvas.
Adaptive Tool System — The blade and clamp system on the original Maker and Maker 3. The Adaptive Tool System allows for active management of the blade’s position by intelligently lifting and rotating the blade into the optimal position for your next cut. This allows for greater precision, especially with smaller, more intricate projects or thicker materials.
Attach — A Cricut Design Space function that helps to hold your cuts in the same position relative to each other on the cutting mat as in the Canvas. It also fastens other Linetype selections, such as Draw, Score, or Foil, to a Cut layer.
Arrange — Arrange moves items on the canvas backward or forwards.
B – Cricut Terms Backing Material to Butcher Paper
Backing material — Also known as a carrier sheet or transfer sheet. It is a plastic or paper backing that is attached to vinyl, printable htv, and Infusible Ink transfer sheets.
Blank — These are the items you will decorate with Cricut and Cricut Materials.
Bleed — This is the small border around each image that allows for more precise cutting.
Brayer — A small paint roller-looking tool that helps to secure your materials to your sticky mat.
Brightpad —Flat-led lightbox that illuminates light through your vinyl so that you can see where the cut lines are for weeding.
Burnish — This word describes the action used when attempting to transfer vinyl. It is kind of a scraping motion.
Butcher paper – Paper with no coating used as a barrier between Infusible Ink and your heat press.
C – Cricut Terms Calibrate to Curve
Calibrate — Calibrating your machine helps Cricut to make more precise cuts for different methods and tools. You will want to calibrate before the first use of the knife blade, print then cut and the rotary blade.
Canvas — This s the workspace used to create or customize your designs in Cricut Design Space.
Card Mat — This was previously a mat that was exclusive to the Cricut Joy. There is now also a mat that can be used with your other machines too.
Cardstock — Paper is thicker and more durable than writing paper but more flexible and thinner than poster board and cardboard. Cardstock typically comes in 65 lb., 80 lb., and 110 lb. weights.
Carriage — The carriage is the part of your machine that holds the blade and other tools. It moves back and forth along the roller bars.
Color Sync — This helps you match colors, or consolidate the colors of a project.
Collections — DS allows you to organize projects into “collections” or folders to make them easier to find.
Contour — This allows you to hide a portion of the design. Contour is great for cleaning up images or editing them to make them into a new design.
Cricut Access — An auto-renewing subscription product that gives you access to the Cricut Image Library of non-licensed images plus thousands of projects & hundreds of fonts.
Cricut Design Space — A digital design application that is used to set up and layout projects to create with a Cricut machine. It includes a suite of tools to create, modify and personalize all your Cricut projects.
Cricut fonts — Text typefaces found only in Cricut Design Space.
Custom material — You can set your own cut settings for materials. Once you have done.
Cut files — Vector images that are prepared for use with your Cricut Machine.
Cut lines — Cut line settings tell the machine what tool you will be used to in your machine.
Cutting mat — A reusable mat with an adhesive that makes it so your materials don’t move while inside your Cricut Machine.
Curve — A function used with text to put a curve to the words or phrases you have typed out.
D – Cricut Terms Decal to Double Scoring Wheel
Decal — A “sticker” made with vinyl that you prepare to transfer to things like walls and car windows.
Debossing Tip — This tip adds a reverse embossed effect to your materials. Instead of raising the surface, it insets the design.
Deep Point Blade — A steeper-angled blade made of harder steel that is used to make deeper cuts on the
Die-cut- This cut type has been used for years in scrapbooking. Nowadays it is usually talked about when referring to a sticker that is cut so that it is a single piece.
Double cut — This means cutting the material twice without removing it from the machine.
Double Scoring Wheel – This tool uses the quick swap housing and is designed to score 2 parallel side-by-side score lines.
E – Cricut Terms Easypress to Engraving Tip
EasyPress — A portable heat press with a large, flat platten for pressing materials that require heat for transfer.
Engraving Tip — A Cricut tool that allows you to engrave/carve unique designs on a wide variety of materials. It uses the quick swap housing.
F – Cricut Terms Fabric Grip Mat to Freezer Paper
Fabric grip mat — This is the pink mat. It has a little stronger adhesive designed to hold the fabric in place while cutting with the rotary blade.
Fast mode — a feature of the Air 2 and newer machines that allow you to cut 2x faster.
Faux leather — Textured material made to resemble genuine leather. It is in fact artificially made.
Firmware — Software programmed into the memory of a device.
Flatten — Is used to take multiple layers of a design and combine them into a single image that you can then cut with the print then cut feature.
Flip — This function allows you to mirror your design on your Design Space canvas.
Foil Transfer Tool — A tool that transfers foil to other materials using a foil tansfer sheet.
Foil Transfer Sheets – A specially coated material that when used with the foil transfer tool will transfer a foil effect onto other materials.
Force — The pressure applied to cut material on your cutting machine.
Freezer paper — Bleached paper with a plastic coating on one side only.
G – Cricut Terms Glyph to Group
Glyph — Extra characters that come with certain fonts. To use these characters you have to access the fonts manager on your cutting machine.
Go button — This starts the machine to cut. On some machines, it is a C and on others, it is a triangle that is on its side.
Grid — The boxes on your DS canvas are grid lines. You can adjust these to full, partial, or none.
Group — This allows you to group parts of a design together for easier design. Grouping doesn’t mean that they will cut together.
H – Cricut Terms Heat Press to HTV
Heat press — A high-pressure high temperature machine used to transfer substrates that require pressure and heat to attach them.
Heat resistant tape — This is a type of tape used to hold materials in place. This tape adhesive will not transfer to your material with heat.
Heat transfer vinyl — Also called iron-on vinyl. This vinyl is used on fabrics and other porous blanks and requires heat to transfer.
Hide — A function that turns off a layer so that you can not see it. This looks like an eye in Cricut Design Space.
Housing — The tubular area on the machine that holds your blades and other tools.
HTV — Short for “heat transfer vinyl.” This is also the same as iron-on vinyl.
I – Cricut Terms Image to Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets
Image — An digital picture. Image types supported by Cricut include PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, DXF, HEIC, and BMP.
Insert – A precut cardstock material used for Cricut Card Inserts.
Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets — Pre-printed sublimation ink sheets on backing material that can be cut in a Cricut cutting machine.
K – Cricut Terms Kerning to Knife Blade
Kerning — The spacing between letters or characters in a text.
Kiss Cut — Cutting only the first layer of the sticker material and not through the liner.
knife blade — An extra-deep blade that cuts through dense materials up to 3/32 in (2.4mm) thick. This blade can cut pretty detailed cuts of thicker materials such as balsa wood, matboard, and chipboard. Only available for the maker machines.
L – Cricut Terms Layer to Line Type
Layer — A portion of a design that is independent of others. You can find your layers on the right side of your DS canvas.
Linetype — This is the “cut” method for a specific layer. This can be score, cut, draw ect.
M – Cricut Terms Machine Mat to Mirror
Machine mat — Plastic mat with adhesive so that the material doesn’t move when the machine is cutting. The Cricut machine has 4 different color mats with different adhesive strengths.
Mat guide — Small, narrow plastic strips on the Cricut cutting machine used to position cutting mats correctly.
Matless cutting — Cutting smart materials without a mat. Currently limited to the Cricut Joy, Explore Air 3, and Cricut Maker 3.
Mirror —Flips your design so that it is in the reverse or a mirror image of the design.
O – Cricut Terms Offset
Offset — This allows you to make a “shadow” around your design.
P – Cricut Terms Paper Weight to Printable Vinyl
Paper weight — Is the thickness of a material. You hear this more when talking about paper weight.
Pattern fill — A function that you can add to apply to layers for Print then Cut. This will fill the inside of a design with colors, patterns, or shapes.
Pause button — Stops the cutting action.
Perforation blade — A tool that creates evenly spaced perforation lines allowing for clean tearing of materials without the need to fold the material beforehand. This tool is for the maker machines and uses the quick swap housing.
Permanent vinyl — Adhesive-backed vinyl, used when you want a design to stay on the surface a long time.
Premium Fine-Point Blade – The main blade that comes with your Cricut Machine.
Pressure — The amount of force applied when cutting or heat pressing.
Print Then Cut —This allows you to print an image that is 6.75×9.25 with a registration area that you can then cut with your machine.
Printable vinyl — A material you can print with an inkjet printer and cut on your Cricut cutting machine. Printable vinyl comes both for things like stickers and to be used with your heat press.
Q – Cricut Term Quick Swap Housing
QuickSwap Housing — A geared, interchangeable tube that holds tools, designed specifically for the Maker Series machines. The QuickSwap Housing allows you to quickly swap tips between Single Scoring Wheel, Double Scoring Wheel, Debossing Tip, Engraving Tip, Perforation Blade, and the Wavy Blade.
R – Cricut Terms Ready To Make Projects to Rotate
Ready to Make projects — Projects that are already set up for you to make in Cricut Design Space.
Registration marks — Box around your print then cut design that tells the machine where to cut the design.
Removable vinyl — An adhesive-backed vinyl that can be removed from a surface.
Reverse weeding — This is a technique where you transfer the entire piece of vinyl to transfer tape and weed backwords.
Roll Holder — This is a tool that attaches to your machine (Explore Air 3 and Cricut Maker 3 to control smart materials. It helps with keeping the material aligned and in place.
Rollers — The small black rubber wheels on the roller bar of your Cricut cutting machine.
Roller Bars — The metal rods in your Cricut cutting machine along which your blade assembly moves.
Rotary Blade — You can only use this with the Maker series which is used to cut fabrics and leathers. Uses the Quickswap Housing.
Rotary Cutter —A tool with a handle that looks like a rotating wheel used to cut fabric.
Rotate — To move in a circular fashion.
S – Cricut Terms Save to Star Wheels
Save — Saving or storing your Cricut Design Space Project.
Save As — Saving a project to a different file name.
Score — To create a crease that is usually intended to aid with folding down a straight line.
Scoring stylus — A pen-shaped tool used to create score lines.
Scoring Wheel — A rotary tool used to create score lines. Uses the quick swap housing.
Scraper — A flat-edged tool used to smooth materials, burnish, and also to remove materials from your mat.
Self-healing mat – A special surface that allows you to cut without damaging the work surface.
Size — Height and width of a layer or design.
Slice — Is referred to when you are to “cut” a design into smaller pieces.
Smart Materials — Materials used for the Cricut Joy, Cricut Explore Air 3, and Cricut Maker.
SnapMat — Used with Design Space for iPad and iPhone that allows you to take a photo of your mat to sort the design onto different areas of the mat.
Spatula — Used to lift materials like paper without ripping or bending it.
Star wheels — The small white rings on either side of your cutting machine roller bar are. They are for keeping materials from shifting during the cutting process.
T – Cricut Terms Transfer Tape to True Control Knife
Transfer tape — A tape-like product used to hold a design together until transferred to its final surface.
Trimmer — Flat cutting device that has grids and rulers that allow for a straight cut.
TrueControl Knife — Cricut brand cutting knife with interchangeable head.
U – Cricut Terms Ungroup to Upload
Ungroup — This allows you to separate items that are grouped together, but you want to edit them separately.
Unzip — Extracting files to a folder that can be viewed on your computer.
Upload — Transferring images from your computer into Cricut Design Space.
W – Cricut Terms Wavy Blade to Wet Method
Wavy Blade – Special blade used with the Maker Series that cuts a wavy like into the project.
Weeding — The process of removing the voided or unwanted area from a vinyl design.
Weeding ring — A silicone ring worn (nail polish holder) on the finger used to scrape small, unwanted pieces of vinyl off your weeding tools.
Weeding tool — A sharp-pointed tool used to voided or unwanted areas from a vinyl design.
Weeding Pen — A tool that looks like a pen, but has a sharp point to remove the voided or unwanted area from a vinyl design.
Weight — The thickness of a paper or cardstock.
Weld — The act of joining objects together permanently together.
Wet method — A technique for applying and positioning adhesive vinyl onto non-porous surfaces (such as glass) that uses a mixture of water and soap.
Z – Cricut Term Zip File
ZIP file — This is a compressed file with other images or folders enclosed inside them.
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