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Free stencil maker

Turn a drawing, logo, or photo into a stencil that holds together. The tool finds the parts that would fall out, like the middle of an O, and adds bridges to keep them in the sheet.

Runs in your browser. Your image is never uploaded.

Your image

Drop an image here, or paste one with Ctrl+V or ⌘V.

HEIC, AVIF, WebP, PNG, or JPG, up to 50 MB.

Dark shapes on a light background make the cleanest stencil.

Options

Image and threshold
Sheet size
The whole sheet, frame included.
Solid material around the design.
Bridges and fine details
How wide each band of material is.
Cut lines and walls thinner than this are removed.
Cleans up dust and noise in the image.

Result

Choose, drop, or paste an image, or try the example.

How it works

  1. 1

    Add your image

    Choose, drop, or paste a picture. A black drawing or logo on a light background gives the cleanest stencil.

  2. 2

    Set the cut

    The threshold is found for you. Adjust it, invert the design, and set the sheet width, bridge width, and bridges per island.

  3. 3

    Download

    Save the SVG for a cutting machine or laser, the STL to print a stencil, or the preview PNG with the bridges marked.

Islands and bridges
The middle of an O, A, B, D, P, or R would drop out of a cut sheet. Each of these islands gets a band of material across the cut. With two bridges, large islands get a second one on the opposite side.
Cut and material
Dark pixels are the design and everything else is the sheet, plus a frame margin. Pieces that touch only at a corner do not count as connected. Output sizes are in real millimeters.
Thin parts
Cut lines and walls narrower than the minimum feature size are removed, and specks under the speck size are absorbed. Check thin walls against your material before you cut.

Questions

Will the SVG open in Cricut Design Space or Silhouette Studio?

It is one compound path, sized in real millimeters, with the even-odd fill rule so the cutouts are holes. Those programs read standard SVG like this, but I have not tested every version, so check the size and the cut preview after you upload.

What kind of image works best?

A large, sharp, high-contrast logo or drawing. Photos work, but they make many small islands and bridges. Raise the minimum feature size to simplify them.

What does the STL contain?

A flat sheet of the thickness you choose with the cutouts removed, built as a closed solid for printing or casting.

How big can the image be?

Up to 50 MB. Large pictures are shrunk to about 1,600 pixels on the long side before the stencil is cut, which is more detail than a cutter or printer can use.

Are my photos uploaded anywhere?

No. Converting happens in your browser. Your photos never leave your device, and nothing is kept after you close the tab.

Making custom stencils for customers?

I build order flows that turn a customer's photo into a cut file automatically.

Ask about automating itSee custom software work

Source code and license

The bitmap work runs on your device. HEIC photos are decoded with libheif, which is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3 and loads only for HEIC files. manifold-3d loads only when you download the STL.