Craft Edge

I am a newbie to the Cricut machine; however I have a background in design and have worked with plotters before. I love the idea behind the cricut, but not having to pay for cartridges. Design Studio is horrible and offers very few creative options. SCAL and Inkscape or MUCH better and have endless possibilities, but not the convenience of having the artwork ready to go like the cartridges. What does one do?

This is not a hack or anything - just a loop hole someone missed. The ORIGINAL .pdf files of the cartridge handbooks are true vector images.... this means that they are crisp, clean and ready to cut. Import the ORIGIANL .pdf file into Inkscape (does a page at a time.) Use the node selector to select the image you want. Copy it. Paste it into a new file. You may need to add a stroke color if you can't see it. Save as a .svg. Import in to SCAL and cut. Unlimited access to the cricut cartridge artwork with out having to purchase them or do anything illegal. PC has removed the ORIGINAL files from their site. They now only offer raster .pdf files.

I have found 64 original .pdf files and hope to find more. Most are on 4shared. If the .pdf is not all bitmappy and jagged.... your good to go. For those of you that have copies of the ORIGIANL files, please share.

Sorry - left out something -

When Inkscape asks you what page you want to import, make sure you change the quality to medium or better.

Also I located a file n Scribd called 2455851 sample that has several charts in one file. Much easier than downloading the individual files and the artwork is just as good.

This has been well known for some time and is more than likely the reason PC removed these vector pdfs from its site, asked others to do so, and is not releasing them for new carts.
Please keep in mind that unless you own the cartridge, this is still a copyright violation, just like lifting copyrighted images from any other source.

Of course thats why PC removed the files they originally posted and why they arent publishing those files for the new cartridges.

Since PC published the files, I am of the opinion that this is not a copyright violation; and I repect the fact that some may feel it is.

Thanks for the info on the SCRIBD.com site. I found it and saved it!

The handbook files have a clear copyright notice on them.

Ladies I realy think enoughs been said about copyright issues!

http://www.4shared.com/account/home.jsp
Here help yourself. Lots of handbooks to enjoy.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/6762632/862f ... aring.html
Correct site for Cricut Handbooks