newRPL keyboard overlay

[lmamakos]

The "print then cut" feature need to identify some color as the "background" and that's used by the software to generate the cuts. So you probably need to add a fill color to the buttons so they look as one solid object.

In the overlay that I made, I arranged for the PNG file export from Inkscape to have an alpha channel, and the "background" was transparent. These were the bits I wanted to be cut away from the vinyl. So I had (in my case) that dark greenish color for the template on the surface of the calculator and for the actual buttons, with a transparent ring around the buttons that was cut away.

When you import the file into the Cricut software, there's an option for "bleed", which is used to bleed the colors on either side of the gap being cut away into that space, so slight misalignments of the cutting blade won't leave white vinyl showing through. Their software does seem to recognize the alpha channel in a PNG file; or perhaps there's a way that you indicate what color in your graphic serves that purpose.

I described a little bit about the tools that I used in a blog posting at https://www.transsys.com/posts/2021/04/n...verlay-v6/ that might help, or maybe serve to generate more confusion :-)

It's been months since I've used the machine, so I'm probably forgetting some important thing or two that I learned the hard way.. If you're using Inkscape, you can import one of my SVG files, which is essentially the Inkscape "project" to see what I did.