Cut Line Offset in mm: What Value Should You Use?

2026-08-17

Recommended cut line offsets in millimetres for die-cut, kiss-cut, text-heavy and detailed stickers — plus when to go negative.

The default: 2 mm

Two millimetres is the safe default and what the generator applies out of the box. It hides normal plotter tolerance (roughly ±0.3 mm on good machines), gives a visible white keyline, and survives peeling without tearing.

Recommended values

• 0 mm: only when the artwork already contains its own white border.
• 1 mm: large, simple shapes such as circles, badges and rounded rectangles.
• 2 mm: the standard for most die-cut vinyl stickers.
• 3–5 mm: playful thick borders, spiky illustrations, thin lettering that needs support.
• Negative (−0.5 to −2 mm): cutting slightly inside the artwork so no white shows at all — risky, use only with heavy bleed.

How offsets interact with size

An offset is absolute, not relative. A 3 mm border looks bold on a 30 mm sticker and almost invisible on a 150 mm one, so re-check the value whenever you scale the design.

If you enlarge artwork inside the generator, the mm readout updates with the scale — trust the millimetre value, not the on-screen pixels.

Checks before export

• No merged gaps between separate elements.
• The offset never crosses the trim edge of the sheet on kiss-cut jobs.
• The border is visually even all the way around — uneven borders usually mean leftover background pixels.