Free design proof on every custom order: no templates, no stock SKUs
Die-cut vinyl decals are cut straight from solid-color adhesive vinyl on a plotter, rather than printed. The shape and color come from the vinyl sheet itself, with no ink layer involved. That makes them the classic choice for lettering, single-color logos and simple graphics that need to hold their color for years without fading. Layer two or three vinyl colors together for a design that needs more than one flat color.
Die-cut vinyl decals are made differently from most decals on this site. Instead of printing a design and then cutting around it, a plotter cuts the shape directly out of a sheet of solid-color adhesive vinyl. Text, a logo outline or a simple graphic comes straight from the material itself, with no ink layer sitting on top. That difference is why cut vinyl holds its color so well over time: there's nothing printed on the surface to fade, chip or wear away, just the vinyl's own pigment.
Because the color comes from the sheet, a design is limited to however many colors get layered by hand. One flat color is standard, two or three is common for a logo with a simple color scheme, and anything beyond that starts to get impractical to align and apply cleanly. Gradients, photographic images and fine color blending aren't possible with this method, which is the main tradeoff against full-color printed decals. What cut vinyl does better is crisp, clean edges on text and simple shapes, since the cut line is the actual boundary of the material rather than a printed edge that can blur at small sizes.
Vinyl itself comes in a few grades worth knowing about. Permanent adhesive vinyl is meant to stay in place for years and resists coming loose from sun, rain or repeated cleaning. The right choice for storefront window lettering, boat names, or a logo applied to equipment kept outdoors. Removable or repositionable vinyl uses a gentler adhesive designed to come off without damage or residue, useful for temporary signage, seasonal graphics or anything that needs to change out regularly. Outdoor-rated cast vinyl holds up longer under UV exposure than a lighter calendered stock, which is worth the difference in cost for anything expected to last multiple seasons.
Cut vinyl decals show up most often as storefront and office window lettering, business hours and hardware labels, boat and trailer names and registration numbers, wall lettering for a home or office, and simple one-color logos for equipment, laptops or gear. If a design calls for more than flat color and clean lines (a photo, a gradient, fine shading) full-color printed and cut decals are the better fit instead.
When ordering, having the exact text or logo finalized ahead of time keeps the process quick, since each color layer in a cut-vinyl design needs to be prepared and aligned separately before application.
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.
A plotter cuts the shape out of a sheet of solid colored vinyl and the surrounding material is weeded away by hand. Nothing is printed, so nothing sits behind the design: no white panel, no clear rectangle, just the letterforms and shapes themselves. On glass or a painted panel they read as though they were painted directly on. The color is the material, so it cannot fade unevenly the way ink does.
Can it reproduce my full-color logo? No. One sheet is one color. Tonal or photographic artwork has to be printed, which makes it a different product.
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 |
No, and that is the whole point of the product. A plotter cuts the shape out of a sheet of solid colored vinyl and the surrounding material is weeded away by hand, so the color is the material itself. Nothing sits behind the design, which is why on glass it reads as though it were painted straight onto the pane.
No. One sheet is one color, so tonal artwork is outside what the process can do. Anything with a photograph, a blend or a shadow has to be printed, which makes it a printed and contour-cut decal instead. We will say so at the quote stage rather than after.
It arrives on transfer tape, which holds every letter in position as one assembly. You hinge one edge with masking tape, squeegee from the center outward, then peel the tape back slowly at a sharp angle. Applied one character at a time it would never line up.
Because there is no ink layer to break down. Printed color sits on top of the vinyl and ultraviolet light attacks it there; on cut work the pigment runs through the film itself, so the color lasts as long as the material does rather than as long as the print does.
Pricing for die cut vinyl 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 die cut vinyl 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.
Print-ready artwork with bleed and a safe margin, supplied as a PDF, AI or EPS. Photographic elements should be supplied at the resolution the finished size needs, not the resolution that looks sharp on screen. If your file is not print-ready, say so when you order. We would rather fix it before the proof than after the run.
Yes. No ink anywhere on it 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: solid color vinyl, plotter cut. Order it when type and logos with no background. If you have seen it called vinyl lettering 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 die cut vinyl 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: die cut vinyl 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. If nothing about the artwork or the specification has changed, there is nothing to re-approve. 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.
