Free design proof on every custom order: no templates, no stock SKUs
Custom die-cut decals are cut precisely along the outline of the artwork itself, so there's no leftover background shape around a logo or character. Just the graphic. Full-color printing handles gradients, multiple colors and fine detail before the contour cut is made. This is the option for a mascot, an irregular logo mark or any design where a standard circle, square or rectangle would leave awkward empty space around the edges.
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A die-cut decal is trimmed along the exact silhouette of its artwork rather than dropped into a standard circle, square or rectangle. The cut follows every curve and point in the design, so a mascot, an irregular logo mark or a lettering-based graphic ends up with no visible background shape around it. Just the image itself sitting on whatever surface it's applied to.
The process starts the same way full-color decal printing always does: the artwork is printed onto adhesive vinyl, a laminate layer is added for scratch and UV protection, and then a cutter follows the outline of the design through the top layers, leaving the paper backing intact so each decal peels away cleanly. Because the cutting equipment can follow essentially any path, there's no meaningful limit on shape complexity beyond what the artwork itself calls for. A logo with several disconnected elements, a character illustration or a wordmark set in a script font can all be cut exactly to their outlines.
A few practical limits are worth knowing before finalizing artwork. Very thin points or narrow bridges between sections of a design (a thin antenna on a character, a serif that tapers to almost nothing) can be fragile once cut and may not survive repeated handling or application. Fine detail and small text hold up better when the overall decal size gives them enough room to print and cut cleanly, rather than being scaled down to a point where lines start to merge together. Reviewing the artwork before cutting usually catches anything likely to cause trouble, in time for a small adjustment rather than a full redesign.
Custom die-cut decals suit any situation where a standard shape would leave distracting empty space around the design: mascot and character stickers, brand logos with irregular outlines, promotional giveaways at events, product and packaging labels that need to follow a specific silhouette, and vehicle or equipment graphics where a clean edge matters more than a uniform border. They read as more polished than a decal boxed into a rectangle, since the eye isn't drawn to a background shape competing with the actual image.
When ordering, it helps to send final artwork as a vector file where one exists, since that gives the cutter the cleanest possible path to follow. Decide on finished size based on where the decal will typically be viewed from, and consider a laminate finish for anything headed outdoors or onto a surface that will see regular handling.
Almost every decal starts as adhesive-backed vinyl film, and the choice inside that is between calendered and cast. Calendered is rolled flat, costs less and stays happy on a flat panel for a season or two. Cast is poured, thinner and far more flexible, which is what lets it lie down over a curved fender or a recessed door edge without lifting at the corners later. Paper is not an option outdoors: it absorbs water, tears at the corners and fades in weeks.
Which one do I actually need? Flat surface, a year or two, calendered is fine. Curves, or several years in full sun, cast. Tell us the surface and we will pick it.
This is the fork that decides everything downstream. A printed decal has artwork laid onto the vinyl in CMYK or Pantone, which handles photographs, gradients and any number of colors. A cut decal has no ink at all: a plotter cuts the shape straight out of a sheet of solid colored vinyl and the waste is weeded away by hand. Cut work holds its color for as long as the film lasts, because there is no ink layer to fade, but one sheet is one color.
Can a cut decal have two colors? Yes, by cutting each color separately and applying them in register. Routine at two or three, fiddly beyond that.
The adhesive is specified against the surface and against how long the decal is meant to stay there, and getting it wrong is the most common cause of a decal that fails. Permanent adhesive grips hard and is the default for vehicles and exterior signage. Removable comes away cleanly for months afterwards, which is what a seasonal promotion or a dated permit needs. Static cling uses no adhesive at all and holds to glass by surface contact, so it leaves nothing behind.
Will a permanent decal damage my paint? Not on sound factory paint. It will lift a poor respray, and it needs heat and a plastic blade to come off cleanly after a few years.
A clear film over the printed face, and on anything going outdoors it is not decoration. UV is what fades a printed decal, and a laminate is the layer that takes that hit instead of the ink. It also absorbs the abrasion a decal gets from brushes in a car wash, from road grit and from being wiped down. Gloss lifts color saturation, matte kills reflections on glass, and a textured laminate adds scuff resistance where the decal is within reach.
Is it worth the extra? Outdoors, always. An unlaminated print in full sun visibly shifts inside a year; laminated, it holds for several.
Full color artwork printed onto vinyl, then a blade follows the exact silhouette of the design rather than a rectangle drawn around it. That combines the color range of printing with the borderless look of cut work, which is why it suits an irregular logo, a mascot or a lettering-based mark. The cut path comes from the artwork, so the file has to carry a real vector outline for a blade to follow.
What if I only have a JPG? The outline has to be redrawn before anything can be cut. Straightforward, but it is a drawing job and we quote it as one.
Tell us the surface and how long it has to stay there. Those two answers pick the material, the adhesive and the laminate together, and getting them wrong is what makes a decal lift at the corners.
A clear film over the printed face that takes the sun instead of the ink. This is the difference between a decal that still looks right in three years and one that has visibly shifted by the end of its first summer. Gloss for saturation, matte where reflections off glass would be a problem.
A blade following the actual outline of the artwork rather than a rectangle around it, so nothing frames the design when it is applied. It needs a real vector path in the file, because a blade cannot follow an edge that exists only as pixels.
A carrier film laid over cut work so separated pieces, letters, a logo with detached parts, land on the surface correctly spaced. You position the whole assembly, squeegee it down, then peel the carrier off. Without it, cut lettering has to be applied one character at a time.
Picking the waste vinyl out from around and inside cut shapes by hand. It is the step that limits how fine cut work can go, because the practical constraint is not what a blade can cut but what a person can lift out without disturbing what stays. Small enclosed counters are where that bites.
Same family, genuinely different jobs. Your current selection is highlighted.
| Decal | From | Build | Order it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl Decals | $160 | Printed adhesive vinyl | The general-purpose outdoor decal |
| Custom Decals | $160 | Your size, shape and quantity | Nothing standard fits the job |
| Die-cut Vinyl Decals | $160 | Solid color vinyl, plotter cut | Type and logos with no background |
| Custom Die-cut Decals | $160 | Cut to the artwork outline | No background shape around the logo |
| Outdoor Decals | $160 | UV laminate over outdoor vinyl | It faces months of sun and rain |
| Window Decals | $170 | Clear or white vinyl for glass | It is read through a window |
| Car Decals | $160 | Cut vinyl for panels and glass | It has to survive car washes and highway grit |
| Double Sided Decals | $160 | Printed on both faces | It is read from both sides of the glass |
| Parking Decals | $160 | Windshield or window permit | An attendant checks it at a glance |
| Round Decals | $160 | Circular cut | A seal or badge with no top or bottom |
| Oval Decals | $160 | Oval cut | A wordmark wider than it is tall |
| Square Decals | $160 | Equal width and height | QR codes and grid-based layouts |
| Rectangular Decals | $160 | Square cut, most efficient | Maximum layout area per sheet |
That the decal is trimmed along the real silhouette of your artwork instead of being dropped inside a circle, square or rectangle. The blade follows every curve and point in the design, so an irregular logo, a mascot or a lettering mark ends up with no background shape framing it.
A vector with live paths: AI, EPS, or a PDF that has kept its paths. The cut line is generated from a real outline in the file, and a JPG or PNG has no outline to follow, only pixels. We can redraw one, but that is a drawing job and it gets quoted as one.
The practical limit is weeding rather than cutting. A blade will follow almost anything, but a person then has to pick the waste vinyl out from around and inside the shape without disturbing what stays. Very fine strokes and small enclosed counters are where that becomes real, so send artwork at its applied size.
Kiss cutting stops the blade at the backing so the shapes stay on a sheet, which suits handouts and anything applied in a batch. Cutting through gives loose individual pieces, which suits a decal applied on its own. Tell us how it will be handed out and we will pick.
Pricing for custom die cut decals starts at $160 and moves with quantity, size, material and finish rather than sitting on a fixed list. Setup is shared across the run, so the per-unit price drops steeply as the quantity rises: the gap between a few hundred and a few thousand is usually the significant one. Send the size, quantity and what it has to do and you get a firm figure back, not a range.
There is a practical minimum rather than a hard one. Every run carries artwork checks, a proof and a press setup, so a very small quantity of custom die cut decals prices poorly per unit even though we will still make it. If you are ordering a small batch, ask for pricing at two or three quantities at once: the curve usually shows that a modest increase costs very little more in total.
The clock starts when you approve the proof, not when the order is placed, which is the part most people are surprised by. You get a proof first: a digital proof showing the artwork, the cut line and the finished size. On window work it shows the correct orientation for the side of the glass it is going on, which is the mistake that is expensive to catch late. Turnaround after approval depends on the finish: anything laminated, foiled or die-cut adds a stage that cannot be compressed without causing problems later. Tell us the date you actually need them and we will work backwards from it rather than quoting a generic lead time.
Yes. Printed first, then cut to the outline is the standard build, and the dimensions around it are yours to set. A size that sits efficiently on the press sheet often costs no more than a standard one, while an awkward proportion that wastes half the sheet does. Ask before you commit and we will tell you whether a small change to the dimensions saves a disproportionate amount.
In most cases they are the same product under a different name: the trade uses several terms for it depending on the region and the supplier. What actually defines this one is the build: cut to the artwork outline. Order it when no background shape around the logo. If you have seen it called cut to shape decals elsewhere, describe what it has to do rather than which name you found, and we will match the specification.
Yes. We provide free samples, and on custom die cut decals it is worth asking for one, because the difference between calendered vinyl and cast vinyl is obvious in the hand and invisible on a screen. Most orders run on calendered vinyl, but ask for whichever you are weighing up. You also get a free design proof before anything goes to press, so nothing is printed that you have not seen.
The usual choices are uv laminate, contour cutting, transfer tape. Finish is not decoration on this product so much as a decision about how long it survives and how it reads in the hand, so it is worth choosing against the job rather than the budget. Tell us where the finished piece ends up and we will say which finish is doing real work and which is only adding cost.
Yes, and that is what almost every order here is. Nothing in this catalogue is a stock item: custom die cut decals are manufactured to the specification you give us, with your artwork on them. Send your logo as vector artwork where you have it, since that scales to any size without softening. If all you have is a low-resolution file, tell us and we will say what it needs before it reaches the press.
Yes, and a repeat run is simpler than the first one. We keep your approved specification on file, so a reorder skips the setup decisions and goes straight to production. Where the job used custom tooling, that tooling is reused, which is why a shaped run costs less the second time. Tell us the previous order and we will match it rather than starting the specification again.
Yes. Regalo Print has been producing custom commercial print for businesses across North America since 2008, and every order ships tracked. The tracking number reaches you the day the job leaves, not the day it arrives. If you are working to a fixed date, say so when you order so the production schedule is built around the delivery date rather than the other way round.
