On weekends, people who own it Cricut’s craft machines—These are printer-like devices that can accurately split documents – heard about an upcoming update that will limit the limit how often they can use the machines they paid. The company, whose cheapest machine is $ 180, is now going to charge users a monthly subscription for unlimited printing, which was previously free.
Using the Cricut machines requires the use of the company’s own Design Space software for desktop PCs and mobile devices. It allows designs to be imported from other software programs such as Adobe Illustrator and arranged to maximize the use of a piece of paper. Some of the better papers that work with the Cricut can be expensive. Design Space also allows you to create custom artwork from scratch using a massive library of downloadable fonts, images, and patterns – some of which are free, but most are not.
As we indicated in our review of the Cricut Joy last year, not only can manufacturing with the machines become expensive if you rely on the company’s designs, but everything must be processed through the Design Space software before cutting instructions are sent to the machines. Until last weekend, the extra step was a minor inconvenience, but now the company has promised a future update to the software that sounds a bit unfair to users who have already paid for the hardware.
In a post shared on the Cricut Blog On Friday, the company will release details about several updates coming to the Design Space software, but it is this paragraph in particular that will keep users in their arms:
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The company already offers monthly and yearly Subscription plans for Cricut Access giving access to the library of designs, images and fonts available through the Design Space app at a cheaper rate than buying them all individually. If you rely a lot on these downloads for your projects, the plans aren’t a bad idea, but until recently they were completely optional and were not necessary to actually use the Cricut machines. That will soon change.
Before the artwork is sent to the Cricut machines for slicing, it is first sent to the cloud, where Cricut’s servers optimize the design and cutting instructions. Currently there is no limit and Cricut users can upload as many designs as they want, including multiple revisions if the optimized results turn out not to be the way they want. But soon, the Design Space app will limit users without a paid subscription to just “20 personal images and / or patterns” per month. Casual crafters may never hit that limit, but those who rely on the machines for their income, such as those who sell their creations through an Etsy store, will have no choice but to start paying at least $ 10 / month , or $ 96 / year, to continue. to use their Cricut machines.
There’s no timeline on which Cricut will start enforcing the 20 upload / month limit, or if it will introduce new, cheaper plans to accommodate those affected. We’ve reached out to Cricut’s representatives for comment and will update this story if they can provide more information about this update and what it means for all Cricut users.