Looking for a new cutting machine...

Provo Craft (PC), the makers of Cricut, is shooting itself in the foot by suing the makers of Make the Cut (MTC) and Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) to force the companies to make their software not compatible with Cricut. If I remember correctly, it's about the same thing that happened between Apple and IBM. Apple limited the development of compatible products by competitors and IBM did not with their personal computer format. As a result, IBM's format became the more widely accepted format because there was more available for it.

PC should well remember that its target market is people who are crafters. These are people who are artistic and creative in our own way. Many of us don't want to be limited to what PC decides we should have available to us. Just look at some of the blogs out there. There are so many ways that they take products meant to do one thing, and use them to create something entirely new. These crafters will always find a way to stretch the limits of their imagination and that's what products like MTC and SCAL allowed them to do with the Cricut.

I attend a monthly Cricut class at a local crafting store. At every class, the instructor makes a project using a cartridge or two, shows off the new cartridges (or new machine) and answers audience questions. A lot of those are about basic use of the machine. There is a wide variety of users at those classes from those who haven't even taken the machine out of the box to a super-user or two and every level in between. No matter that I've had my machine for years and have used it extensively, it seems like I always walk away from the class with a new tip, trick or inspiration, so it's well worth a couple hours of my time.

But now thinking back about that class, it really demonstrates the wide variety of Cricut users. There are people at that class who will never be interested in doing anything other than making what the cartridges allow you to make with no peripheral device. They will never hook their Cricut up to a computer or use a Gypsy. But they will buy every cartridge that appeals to their taste and use it exactly as the booklet shows. They need the instructions and what they see is enough for them. They don't want anything more complicated than what the machine was originally made to do. That's one of the things that makes Cricut so attractive. It's easy to use: set a few dials, push a couple of buttons and sit back.

Then there are those who might take it to the next level and manipulate the cartridge using the Gypsy or Cricut Design Studio (CDS) software . That is, if they can figure out how to use CDS. I was so excited when I bought the CDS software years ago. But once I had it loaded, I was thoroughly disappointed. It was the most non-user friendly software I had seen and, trust me, I use some of the most non-user friendly programs one could imagine. Most of the time I can figure them out without a lot of help or instruction. But this one was truly awful. I finally figured it out with a lot of trial and error because there wasn't a lot of help in any of the materials. I looked at it and thought, my mother, who is pretty good with computers, would still have difficulty with the software because it's not intuitive and they don't provide any real support to get to learn to use the program. For many, it would never work at all. For a company that created a machine that was simple enough that most people could easily use it, how could they create such a poor program to go with it? Because of that, I've never looked at the Gypsy. I'm not one to create on the go and because CDS was so awful, I wasn't willing to spend my money on Gypsy.

But, ultimately, with perseverance, one can learn to use the CDS software and take their machine and cartridge capacity to another level. But, ultimately, one is still limited to what is available on the cartridges the person owns. The problem there is that the cartridges don't always speak to the creativity in us. We all have different tastes. I like clean, graphic styles. Others might see the pages as boring. But that's what's so great about life. We all do have different styles and tastes and get to express them. Unfortunately the cartridges mean that we are at the mercy of the Cricut designers for the tools available to use. While that's great for the straight-forward user, it places limits on the creativity of those of us who have a different vision but not the tools to achieve it due to the limits of the cartridges and the CDS software.

That's where SCAL and MTC came in for Cricut users who wanted to break free of the limitations of the CDS software and the designs on the cartridges. I have SCAL and have loved it from the time I installed it about a year ago. It's let me take my Cricut creating to the next level. I've made word books, found designs that weren't available on any cartridge and created my own. For instance, last weekend when making the card for my co-worker, I wanted a buckle for the front. I pulled out my Fabulous Finds cartridge and flipped through the booklet. I didn't see what I had in mind. There were things that I suppose would have worked, but they weren't what I wanted. So I designed my own in Inkscape, brought it into SCAL and cut it on my Cricut. I was free to follow my inspiration wherever it wanted to go.

PC truly had the best of both worlds, they had a machine for people who needed something simple to use and needed inspiration for their creativity and that same machine could be pushed to the limits of our imagination using outside programs like Inkscape combined with SCAL.

But now PC wants to stop that. Instead of creating their own competing software to allow us to do what others have done, they are simply seeking to stop the others. They have already settled with the makers of MTC to ensure that the future versions of the software will not be Cricut compatible and they have filed suit against the makers of SCAL, likely to seek the same remedy. If PC makes it so that I can only use the Cricut with their cartridges and their CDS software, well, all I can say is that I'll vote with my dollars. Cricut is not the only machine out there and the makers of many of the others aren't as short-sighted as PC. If PC cannot respect my creative drive, I guess I'll go find a company that can.

So if you have use a cutting machine other than a Cricut, let me know what you think about it. I guess I'm evaluating my options.