Contour Studio

Cut Contour

Motif edge in. Clean cut path out.

Cut Contour (Contour Studio) turns an uploaded image into a closed vector cut path, entirely client-side in the browser. The engine detects the foreground either from the alpha channel (transparent PNG) or from brightness, builds a binary mask from it, smooths and simplifies that mask into polygons, and renders the final path. Three preview panes — Original, Mask, Contour — show every processing stage live. The result exports as SVG or DXF, or goes straight into the Production Artboard as a vector, cut layer, or workpiece mask, or back to the laser workspace.

Open tool See the feature

Load an image

The starting point for every contour calculation — an image in the "Original" preview pane.

Upload image: Opens the file picker to choose an image from the device (PNG, JPEG, etc.). The image is automatically downscaled to a workable size before processing if it is too large — a notice message confirms this.
Handoff from Laser Control: When Cut Contour is opened from the laser workspace (image object → contour), the tool automatically loads the source image from the handoff session and sets the insert size from the original object's dimensions.Only appears when launched via the Laser Control handoff, not on a standalone tool start.

Detection

Determines which image channel the foreground mask is built from.

Auto: Lets the tool decide: if it detects a meaningful alpha channel (a partially transparent image with a recognisable foreground), it uses Alpha/Transparency — otherwise Brightness.
Alpha / Transparency: Forces mask detection from the alpha channel. Suited to cut-out PNGs with a transparent background.
Brightness: Forces mask detection from image luminance. Suited to images without transparency that have a clear light/dark contrast between subject and background.

Contour type

Determines which of the detected sub-contours end up in the final cut path.

Outline: Keeps only the largest detected contour — the outer silhouette of the subject. Interior contours (holes, details) are deliberately ignored and filled in internally.
Outline + openings: Keeps the outer silhouette plus every interior contour that lies geometrically inside it (e.g. holes or cutouts within the subject).
All details: Keeps every detected sub-contour in the image, including separate, unconnected parts of the subject.

Mask preparation

Controls that shape the binary foreground mask before it is traced into polygons. Every change auto-updates the preview after a short delay.

Threshold: The cutover value (0–255) above which a pixel counts as foreground — based on opacity in alpha mode, or on brightness in luminance mode.
Border Offset px: Shifts the mask edge outward (positive values) or inward (negative values), in pixels of the internal working resolution. Positive values grow the detected foreground; negative values shrink it.
Blur: Softens the mask edge before the threshold comparison, to smooth noise and hard stair-step edges in the source.
Invert: Flips what counts as foreground — e.g. when the subject in the source image is dark on a light background instead of the reverse, or with inverted alpha logic.

Path preparation

Controls that determine how the mask becomes a clean, engravable/cuttable vector path.

Smoothing: Smooths the mask through multiple morphological open/close passes before tracing — reduces stair-stepping and small noise islands in the contour.
Min. Points: Minimum number of corner points a sub-contour must have to be kept. Smaller, likely-unwanted fragment contours below this count are discarded.
Simplify: Path simplification tolerance: reduces the number of anchor points in the final path without materially changing its shape — higher values produce simpler but less precise paths.
Edge flow: Controls how strongly the contour is smoothed between corner points (0 = sharper, 1 = flowing), applied after simplification.
Curve: Determines how strongly the final SVG path is drawn with curve segments instead of straight line segments — 0 produces a pure polygon, higher values round off transitions in the path itself, not just visually.
Protect corners: Prevents sharp, deliberate corners from being rounded off by the edge-flow smoothing — important for subjects with intentionally pointed edges.

Output size

Determines the physical size the cut path is exported at, or inserted into the Artboard at.

Insert size mm: Physical width of the output path in millimetres. Height is automatically calculated to match the source image's aspect ratio.

Preview

Three preview panes show the processing stages side by side — no separate toggles, all three are always visible.

Original: Shows the loaded source image, internally resized to the working resolution, unmodified.
Mask: Shows the computed binary foreground mask after threshold, blur, border offset, and smoothing — dark = foreground, light = background.
Contour: Shows the final computed cut path as a line drawing on a grid background — exactly what is used on export or when handing off to the Artboard.
Status line: Shows the number of detected contours and points below the controls, or an error/notice message if no contour could be calculated.
Warnings: Appear below the status line, e.g. when very little or almost the entire area was detected as foreground, when a very large number of separate contours resulted, or when small contours were automatically removed.

Export

Downloads the current cut path as a file, independent of the Artboard or laser.

Download SVG: Downloads the cut path as an SVG file at the physical size defined by "Insert size mm" — an open path with color/stroke, ready to cut or engrave in LightBurn and similar software.
Download DXF: Downloads the same path as a DXF file — for CAD and laser software that expects DXF instead of SVG.

Hand off to laser or Artboard

These actions differ depending on how Cut Contour was opened. If the image came from Laser Control (image object → contour), only "Apply & back to laser" appears. On a standalone launch from the tool directory, "Send to laser" and the three Artboard options appear instead.

Apply & back to laser: Sends the computed path back to the original image object in the laser workspace as a cut vector, and returns there automatically.Only visible when the tool was opened from Laser Control with an image handoff.
Send to laser: Opens a confirmation, then places the path as a new cut vector object directly onto the laser work surface (/app/laser).Only visible on a standalone launch; routes through a confirmation dialog first.
As cut layer in artboard: Inserts the path as a new layer of type "cut" (red preview color) into the active Artboard project, positioning it — if available — exactly over the last image object in the Artboard.
As workpiece mask: Also inserts the path as a cut layer, additionally flagging the resulting object as a workpiece mask — elements outside this mask are ignored on Artboard export.
As vector object: Inserts the path as a neutral vector object (engrave color, "line" mode) with no cut or mask role, into the Artboard for free further editing there.

Common mistakes & fixes

Contour follows the image edge instead of the subject, or almost nothing is detected.

Fix: Check the detection mode: for a cut-out PNG, force "Alpha / Transparency"; for an image without transparency, choose "Brightness" and adjust the threshold. An image with no clear contrast between subject and background will not yield a usable mask — cut it out with Background Remover first.

Path is not closed, or won't run as a cut on the laser.

Fix: The status line shows "No usable contour detected" when no closed shape was found. Check threshold and detection mode — a mask that is too light or too dark won't produce a continuous contour.

Cut path sits too tight against the subject (sticker gets clipped when cutting).

Fix: Increase Border Offset px to a positive value to push the path outward. This creates a small safety margin between the subject edge and the cut line.

Cut path sits too loose around the subject (a visible white border remains).

Fix: Set Border Offset px to a negative value so the path hugs the subject edge more tightly.

Fine points or jagged tips on the subject get rounded off in the contour.

Fix: Reduce Edge flow and enable "Protect corners". For very fine details, also reduce Smoothing — strong smoothing inevitably rounds off small points.

Several separate path pieces instead of one continuous contour.

Fix: Set Contour type to "Outline" if only the outer silhouette is needed. With "All details" this is expected behaviour for subjects with gaps — review or delete unwanted sub-paths in the Artboard afterward.

Not obvious

The best result comes from a PNG with a clean alpha channel (e.g. from Background Remover) combined with "Alpha / Transparency" detection — Brightness detection is the more robust choice only when no transparency is present.
The three preview panes show the processing pipeline in order: Original → Mask → Contour. If the result looks wrong, check the Mask first — an error there propagates straight into the contour.
Border Offset is the direct lever for cut margins: positive values for vinyl/sticker safety clearance, negative values or 0 when the cut needs to sit exactly on the subject edge.
"Outline + openings" is the right choice for subjects with real holes (e.g. rings, letters with enclosed counters) — "Outline" would fill those holes in.
A path inserted as a cut layer is automatically positioned exactly over the last image object in the Artboard, if one exists — convenient for the direct photo → cutout → contour → cut workflow.
Insert size mm only affects the output (export, Artboard, laser) — the internal calculation always runs in pixels of the source image's adjusted working resolution.