Cricut

Cricut, Inc. is an American brand of cutting plotters, or computer-controlled cutting machines, designed for home crafters. The machines are used for cutting paper, felt, vinyl, fabric[2] and other materials such as leather, matboard, and wood.

Models

The original Cricut machine has cutting mats of 6 ×, the larger Cricut Explore allows mats of 12 ×. The largest machine will produce letters from a 0.5 to 23.5 in high. Both the Cricut and Cricut Explore Air 2 require mats and blades which can be adjusted to cut through various types of paper, vinyl and other sheet products. The Cricut operates as a paper cutter based upon cutting parameters programmed into the machine, and resembles a desktop printer.[3]

Cartridges

Designs are made from components stored on cartridges. Each cartridge comes with a keyboard overlay and instruction booklet. The plastic keyboard overlay indicates key selections for that cartridge only. However, Provo Craft has released a "Universal Overlay" that is compatible with all cartridges released after August 1, 2013.[7]

Controversies

Third-party hostility

Provo Craft has been actively hostile to the use of third-party software programs that could enable Cricut owners to cut out designs and to use the machine without depending on its proprietary cartridges. In a comparative review of die-cutting machines, review site TopTenReviews identified being "limited to cutting designs from a collection of cartridges" as a major drawback of the Cricut range, though the review noted that it could be a preference for some.[16]

Two programs which could formerly be used to make and then get Cricut machines to cut out arbitrary designs (using, for example, arbitrary TrueType fonts or SVG format graphics) were Make-the-Cut (MTC) and Craft Edge's Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL). In April 2010, Provo Craft opened legal action against the publishers of Make-the-Cut, and in January 2011, it sued Craft Edge to stop the distribution of the SCAL program. In both cases the publishers settled with Provo Craft, and removed support for Cricut from their products. The programs continue to be usable with other home cutters.

According to the text of its legal complaint against Craft Edge, "Provo Craft uses various techniques to encrypt and obscure the USB communications between Cricut DesignStudio [a design program supplied with the hardware] and the Cricut e-cutter, in order to protect Provo Craft's proprietary software and firmware, and to prevent attempts to intercept the cutting commands".[17] Provo Craft contended that in order to understand and replicate this obscured protocol, Craft Edge had disassembled the DesignStudio program, contrary to the terms of its end-user license agreement, thereby (the company asserted) breaching copyright law. Provo Craft also asserted that Craft Edge were violating its trademark in the word "Cricut" by saying that its software could work with Cricut machines. Provo Craft asserted that this was likely "to cause confusion, mistake or deception as to the source or origin of Defendant's goods or services, and [was] likely to falsely suggest a sponsorship, connection, license, or association of Defendant's goods and services with Provo Craft".[17]

User upload limitation

On March 12, 2021, Cricut announced it would soon start limiting users without a Cricut Access subscription to 20 free uploads per month to Design Space.[18] All previous uploads, which prior to this date had been unlimited for all users, would have remained available, but new uploads would have the limit imposed for free users. Because the Cricut machines are dependent on Design Space, Cricut's proprietary cloud-based image service, to upload and work with user-generated content, this change would effectively have required its customers to purchase a monthly subscription to use their machines past the most basic of use-cases.

The announcement was criticized by users at the company's unofficial subreddit and other mediums, as people saw it as a form of vendor lock-in. A petition was launched in protest. News organizations soon picked up on the story and began reporting about the imposed subscription requirement, causing further uproar.[13][19][20] Following the backlash, Cricut's CEO apologized, and Cricut soon after scrapped the plans.

type	Public
traded as	nasdaq: CRCT (Class A)
industry	Consumer electronics
hq location city	South Jordan, Utah
hq location country	United States
key people	Ashish Arora (president & CEO) Kimball Shill (CFO)
num employees	690‡R1R‡
products	Cutting plotters, heat press

Models

Cartridges

Heat presses

Lighting

Software

Proprietary

Past software

Controversies

Third-party hostility

User upload limitation

External links

References