Exact-Cut vs VinylMaster

Exact-Cut is design-and-cut software for logos, shapes, lettering, pinstriping, and vinyl or card projects. Drawing tools include shape welding and a freestyle pen with automatic smoothing. Contour tools outline objects, shapes, and text, with controls for offsets, holes, insets, and contour bleed. It supports more than 100 materials, including vinyl, cardstock, heat transfer material, paper, fabric, leather, felt, and cork. A free clipart library provides project shapes and ready-to-cut box templates. Cutter connections include wireless Auto-Connectivity, USB, and U-Disk; the site also mentions smartphone wireless use. Exact-Cut works fully offline. It is free to download and use with supported cutters, but is included only with supported cutter models. Listed requirements are Windows 10 or later or macOS 10.16 Catalina or later, with at least 4GB RAM and 500MB disk space. The maker is Jinan Eternal Software Technology Ltd, based in Jinan, Shandong Province, China.

VinylMaster is Windows graphics software for creating artwork and preparing signs, decals, banners, posters, lettering, shapes and logos for cutting or print-and-cut production. It comes in five editions: CUT, LTR, PRO, DSR and XPT. Cutting tools include contour cutting, auto-cut, weeding and an interactive vinyl spooler. DSR adds vector and image effects, cut-document editing and nesting; it is described as full-featured but does not include a RIP. XPT includes a RIP for wide-format printing. The maker says the software supports more than 5,000 cutters and hundreds of printers, while noting that some devices are unsupported. Listed operating systems are Windows 8.1, 10 and 11. There is no free plan, but a free demo is available. One-time purchase prices range from $59 as a one-time purchase for CUT to $995, paid once for XPT. Monthly subscriptions are also listed: LTR $8.95 a month, PRO $14.95 a month, DSR $24.95 a month and XPT $49.75 a month. Access permissions are limited to DSR and XPT.