Device installation

Linux

Cutters with a parallel interface

Cutters with a parallel interface (either a 'real' parallel port or using a built-in parallel-to-USB converter) must be added to your system as a printer before using them from Inkcut. Start your printer configuration utility (e.g. system-config-printer), which at least when connecting via USB should detect the connected cutter. Proceed to add it with the 'Generic' 'Raw Queue' driver.

OS X

Cutters with a parallel interface

Cutters with a parallel interface (either a 'real' parallel port or using a built-in parallel-to-USB converter) must be added to your system as a printer before using them from Inkcut.

Enable the CUPS web interface by executing cupsctl WebInterface=yes on the command line. Then visit the admin interface on http://127.0.0.1:631/admin and add a printer using an admin username and password. Select the relevant 'local printer', continue and select 'Raw' for the 'Make' and 'Raw Queue' for the model.

Device Setup

Choose Device -> Setup... from the menu. Select your device driver from the list.

Note: If your device is not in the list, use the Inkcut Generic Driver.

Select the Connection tab and choose the connection type. Finally choose the language your device uses in the Protocols tab. Click Ok to save your changes.

Inkcut - device setup

Speed settings

Inkcut attempts to send data to the device at a rate that will not cause the device's data buffer to overflow on large jobs. For this to work properly it is important that the speed setting matches the actual device speed.

Output rotation

You can change final output scaling and rotation that Inkcut uses for your device under the Output tab within the Device tab.

Inkcut - device final output

Quality factor

When cutting small jobs some intricate details may be lost in the conversion from curves to polygon segments.

inkcut-quality-factor-1

The default Quality factor of 1 can be adjusted in the Advanced tab to increase the number of points used. Increasing this to 5 for instance gives a noticable improvement for this example.

inkcut-quality-factor-2

Be careful however as this can signifcantly increase the number of points sent to the device.

Add missing device

The list of supported devices from the old website was moved to a google spreadsheet here. These must also be added into Inkcut for them to display in the device dropdown list.

If you would like to add a missing device, please create an issue and provide the following:

  • Manufacturer
  • Model name
  • Supported protocols
  • Supported connection types
  • Width and length of the plotting area