What Is Kiss Cut, and Which Cut Suits Your Stickers?

Under finishing, the configurator offers “individual” and “on sheet”, while guides talk about “kiss cut” and “die cut”. You click whatever sounds familiar and hope for the best. Later, loose stickers turn up in the envelope, even though the business wanted its logos neatly arranged on a sheet.

What is kiss cut? In short, a cut that goes through the sticker only and leaves the backing paper intact. The cutting type decides whether your stickers arrive as a sheet, as individual pieces or as plain rectangles. Which one suits you depends less on the design than on who ends up holding the stickers.

What exactly is kiss cut?

A sticker is made of layers. On top is the printed vinyl, below it the adhesive, and at the very bottom the backing paper. With a kiss cut, also written “kiss-cut”, the blade or cutting die cuts only the top layer, that is, the vinyl together with the adhesive. The backing paper stays intact. When you peel a sticker off, you will see at most a faint impression of the cut line on it.

An easy way to remember it: the blade only kisses the backing paper; it doesn't cut into it.

Because the backing stays intact, several stickers can sit on one shared sheet. That is the real benefit. Several designs fit on one sheet, for example the company logo in two sizes next to a notice sticker. And if you apply lots of identical logos yourself, you have them neatly together instead of loose in a box.

The shape is up to you: the kiss cut can follow the outline of the design or produce plain rectangles on the sheet.

After cutting, vinyl remains around the stickers, known as the matrix or waste. Removing it is called weeding: the waste is peeled off the backing paper as one continuous vinyl skeleton, leaving only the stickers on the sheet.

When the cutting depth is wrong

With a kiss cut, depth is everything. You'll notice two kinds of fault the first time you peel:

• Too shallow: The adhesive has not been cut all the way through. The sticker doesn't come away cleanly from the backing.
• Too deep: The blade doesn't just touch the backing paper, it cuts into it.

When the cut is right, the sticker comes off the sheet cleanly and the backing paper stays in one piece.

Die cut: the individual sticker

With a die cut (in German “Durchschnitt”), you don't get a sheet. You get individually cut stickers, each one on its own. That works when every piece ends up in someone's hand on its own: as an insert in the packaging, handed out at a trade show stand or as merch stickers at the till.

What the back of an individual sticker looks like is not the same with every offer. What matters is whether the backing paper ends exactly flush with the design or extends beyond it all round. Look for this in the product description. If it isn't stated, ask before ordering.

On larger individual stickers, some suppliers slit the backing paper on the reverse. That makes it easier for a fingernail to find a starting point for peeling.

Cutting die or cutting plotter

Kiss cuts and die cuts are made in two ways. Either with a cutting die that is specially made and matched to the particular material. Or with a computer-controlled blade in a cutting plotter that follows the cut line from the file. Which method a print shop chooses depends, among other things, on the print run. For you as the customer, what counts above all is the result: sheet or individual, shape or rectangle.

Rectangular cut: the simple shape

When it comes to shape, the rectangle is the simplest choice. Straight edges, four corners, no cut that follows the design. This also comes as a kiss cut on a sheet if several rectangles are meant to stay together.

Often that is exactly enough. A notice on the workshop door, a label on a shelf, the company logo on a white field for the toolbox, labels for packaging. Nobody needs to create a contour here, and the cut line stays short.

If the design runs right to the edge, the file needs a little extra beyond the final format: the bleed. Print and cut can shift very slightly against each other, and the extra absorbs that. How much is needed is set out in the print shop's file specifications.

Contour cut, kiss cut, die cut: why the terms get mixed up

The reason is simple: the words answer two different questions.

What shape? With a contour cut, the cut follows the outline of the design instead of a rectangle. That says something about the shape, nothing about the depth.

How deep? Kiss cut and die cut describe how deep the cut goes: only through vinyl and adhesive, or all the way to a separate piece.

The two can be combined. A company logo with a free contour is available on a sheet just as it is as an individual sticker. A rectangle can sit on a sheet or come individually. The question “kiss cut or contour cut?” is therefore the wrong question. The more useful one is: what shape, and how should the sticker arrive?

In the koeck-print.at shop, you choose these in two separate steps. For shape, you can pick rectangular, round/oval or custom; for finishing, individual, on sheet or on roll. Not sure what a choice means for your design? Then ask us before you order rather than afterwards.

Which cutting type for which purpose?

The cutting type follows from how the stickers will be used, not from the design. A few typical cases:

• Several designs for collecting and swapping: kiss cut on a sheet. All the designs stay together, and fans and members peel them off one by one.
• Lots of identical logos that your team applies itself: on a sheet. The stickers stay organised until they go on tools or machines.
• An insert in the parcel or handouts at a stand: individual stickers. Each piece goes on its own way, straight into the customer's hand.
• A logo whose outline should stand out: contour cut, on a sheet or individual, depending on who applies it.
• A notice or label on a flat surface: rectangular cut. A contour usually adds nothing here.

What the cutting type means for the file and the effort

For a contour cut, the cutting machine needs a separate line in the file. It controls the cut only and is not printed. What this line is called and how it is set up is specified by the print shop. If your logo isn't available as a vector file or the contour is missing, our design team will create it for you as a service on request.

When cutting, what counts is less the area than the length of the cut line. How long cutting takes depends on the number of pieces and the length of the cuts. Free contours with points and fine details are usually longer than a rectangle and are cut more slowly. With large formats the difference hardly matters; with lots of small stickers it matters more. A design with a precise shape can therefore take more effort than a rectangle of the same size.

Plotted letters cut from single-colour vinyl, by the way, are a separate process without printing. We explain the difference in Foil technology or digital print.

Meant a sheet, ordered individual stickers

A typical mix-up: a plumbing and heating business wants its logo on toolboxes, ladders and equipment. The team applies the stickers itself. What gets ordered are individual stickers cut to shape.

In the workshop, the problem shows. The small pieces lie loose in a box, some of them end up in the company van, and when it comes to applying them nobody knows how many are left. A kiss-cut sheet would have kept the logos neatly together.

The individual stickers weren't wrong, though, just in the wrong place. As an insert with an invoice or for handing out to customers, the individual sticker is still the right choice. Two uses, two cutting types. One question before ordering would have been enough: who is going to apply the stickers?

Whoever applies it decides the cut

That is why the design does not come first. Which cutting type fits is decided mainly by who gets the sticker in their hand.

If you apply the stickers yourself or hand out lots of designs at once, a sheet serves you well. If you pass on single pieces, you need individual stickers. And if all you want is to label a surface, you don't need a contour. A notice sticker with a playful contour rarely looks better than a clean rectangle. It just takes more effort.

One limitation belongs here: what a sticker will look like in the end is shown better by the product description than by a single keyword. Read it before ordering. You'll find more examples of how stickers work in everyday life in Stickers you can't overlook.

Conclusion: sheet, single piece or rectangle

A kiss cut leaves the backing paper intact and keeps several stickers on one sheet. Individual stickers go their separate ways. A rectangular cut is enough wherever no particular shape is needed. Before ordering, clarify:

• Who applies them, and how are they handed out? You, your team or the recipient? As a sheet with several designs, or piece by piece?
• What shape? Should the cut follow the design, or is a rectangle enough?

In the free file check, we look over your file before printing. Write to us via Contact and tell us what the stickers are for, and we'll tell you which cutting type fits. Order custom stickers online at koeck-print.at, including very small runs from a single piece.

Frequently asked questions

What does kiss cut mean for stickers?

With a kiss cut, the blade or cutting die cuts only the top layer, meaning the printed vinyl together with the adhesive. The backing paper stays intact; at most you will see a faint impression of the cut line on it. That is why several stickers can sit on one shared sheet and be peeled off individually.

What is the difference between kiss cut and die cut?

With a kiss cut, the stickers stay on a shared backing paper, usually as a sheet. With a die cut (in German also called “Durchschnitt”), you get individually cut stickers. What matters is whether the backing paper ends flush with the design or extends beyond it. This should be stated in the product description; if not, ask before ordering.

Can I order several designs on one kiss-cut sheet?

Technically yes: because the backing paper stays intact, several stickers fit on one sheet, including different designs. Whether your particular combination can be selected like this in the shop is something to check quickly via our contact form before ordering.