A vinyl cutter (sometimes known as a cutting plotter) is used by professional poster and billboard sign-making businesses to produce brilliant weather-resistant signs, posters, and billboards using self-colored adhesive-backed vinyl film that has a removable paper backing material. The vinyl can also be applied to car bodies and windows for large, bright company advertising and to sailboat transoms. A similar process is used to cut tinted vinyl for automotive windows.
Colors available are generally limited only by the collection of vinyl on hand. To prevent creasing of the material, it is stored in rolls. Typical vinyl roll sizes are 24-inch and 36-inch width.
Generally the hardware is identical to a traditional plotter except that the ink pen is replaced by a very sharp knife that is use to cut out each shape, and the plotter may have a pressure control to adjust how hard the knife presses down into the vinyl film, allowing designs to be fully or partly cut out. The vinyl knife is usually shaped like a plotter pen and is mounted on ball-bearings so that the knife edge rotates to face the correct direction as the plotter head moves.
Once the letters or designs have been cut out, there are two methods for handling the application.
The most common method:
From the front surface, peel off the surround and unwanted areas of shapes from the letters or design. Apply a slightly tacky carrier film over the letters or design (this film is similar to masking tape though clear carrier films are also used. Cut out the area which includes the desired design, including the carrier film, vinyl and vinyl backing material. Apply a small piece of masking tape to the sides of the resulting sandwich to ease positioning. Ensuring that the area to which the vinyl is to be applied is clean, position the sandwich. When it is in the desired position, apply a hinge of masking tape to the lower edge. Remove the two side pieces of masking tape and the sandwich will fold down along the hinge. Carefully remove the backing paper by peeling sideways, not away from the letters or design. The cut vinyl is now held in position by the carrier film. With a small plastic wiper (a credit card will also do), sweep the cut vinyl into contact with the mounting surface, stroking upwards and outwards, taking care to leave no air bubbles. When all parts of the cut vinyl is in contact with the mounting surface, gently peel off the front paper sideways, and apply final pressure to the front face of the cut vinyl to produce a weather-resistant sign. An older method:
Once the vinyl has been cut, the individual cut-out pieces are peeled off the backing paper and carefully assembled by hand on the mounting surface to form the final image. A heat gun may be used to melt/bond the vinyl pieces to the substrate. Sign cutters are primarily used to produce single-color line art. Multiple colors can be cut and assembled but the assembly process is extremely painstaking if the cut sections are thin and flexible.
As with the pen plotter, sign cutting plotters are in decline for general billboard and sign design. They are being replaced by wide-format inkjet printers that use special fade-resistant UV-protected solvent-based inks, which can directly print onto fabrics, vinyls, or plastic sheeting. These large inkjet printers have the added advantage of performing smooth color transitions and photo printing, which sign cutters cannot duplicate.
However, vinyl cutter are still very much in use for precision cutting of graphics produced by wide-format inkjet printers, for example to produce shaped stickers and window graphics.
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Laser Engraver
Laser engraving uses a laser engraving machine ( computer to control a laser beam )which is pointed at the object to be engraved. As the laser moves it removes tiny dots of material. The image is usually built line by line, similar to the way an inkjet printer works.
Laser engraving with laser engraver can reproduce virtually any digital image in great detail. Many different materials can be engraved with a laser, and some machines can make color laser engravings on metal.
3d engraving in crystal Engraved with a laser Laser engraving equipment has been around for a few years, but from about the year 2000, has become affordable for small sized businesses. With plenty of business owners spending money on the equipment, there has been an explosion in ideas of how to use laser engraving and it really is a fascinating field.
There are many advantages to laser engraving compared to other engraving methods:

• Fewer consumables used and less wear and tear as no part of the machinery touches the thing being engraved
• Highly accurate as it's computer controlled. laser engraving and laser cutting can engrave images at over 1000 dots per inch, so is highly suitable for reproducing graphics.
• Material being engraved does not need to be held down
• Easy to use. Some laser engraver machines and laser cutter are as easy to use as a normal computer printer
• Many materials may be engraved with one pice of equipment. E.g. wood, plastics, glass, metals, ceramics, cloth, leather, marble, melamine, paper, rubber, fiberglass.

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