Calibration: what it is and what it isn't

I hear this a great deal: “If your cuts are off, you need to calibrate your machine.” That is actually very, very rarely the case. The folks who recommend it have no idea what it actually does. It’s usually something else entirely (operator error) that’s causing an issue with your Silhouette machine. In today’s lesson, we’re going to talk about what Calibration does and how to perform one. We’ll also discuss two more lesser-known adjustments you can make on your machine.

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What is calibration for?

Calibration is for print and cut projects where the cut is off by a tiny amount. It’s important to know right off the bat what Calibration will NOT do. It will NOT affect—

problems with regular cuts
machine not reading registration marks on a print and cut
print and cuts that are off by more than a tiny amount
print and cuts that are off by a different amount or to a different side on different images on the same page

Problems such as those are due to something in the file setup or printing.

If that cut line is off to the side or top or bottom the same tiny amount on every image, then Calibration can help adjust for that. You tell the machine to move the cutting spot by that small amount. It’s getting the optical eye and the blade in sync. We’re talking tenths or hundredths of millimeters here, not ½”.

If you are new to print and cut projects, I highly recommend you go through my First Steps in Print and Cut series before performing a Calibration test. That’s where I teach you how to avoid all those common operator errors that can cause the issues listed in my bullet points above.

Steps in Calibration

Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll teach you how to perform a Calibration.

The Calibration test works the easiest if you have a Silhouette brand sketch pen, but it can work just as well with a blade. I do not recommend using your own pen in a pen holder, because there’s too much “play” in it. We’re trying to be precise here, so if that pen moves around in the pen holder at all the whole test is useless. This applies to the Distance Adjustment and Tool Separation tests as well (more on those below).

Let me also mention that you only need to do a Calibration test once to account for any minor differences in your machine. Any changes you make are saved in the software settings on your computer for that particular machine. That means you might have to redo it if you change computers, have to do a clean uninstall of the software or for any other reason have to delete the preferences folder. And you would need to do it separately for each machine you use.

Getting set up

Go to the Send area.
Find the picture of your machine at the bottom.
Right click and select Calibration.
The Calibration panel opens where the cut settings usually are, and the Design area shows a Calibration test page.
Print the test page on your home printer (click that at the top of the right side), making sure to check your printer setup (see this post for tips). The green areas don’t print — they are for reference for a later step.
Put the Calibration test page on your mat as shown in the software and load it into the machine.
Using the arrow keys in the Calibration menu, move the motor box until the tip of your blade or pen that’s in tool holder 1 is over the designated green area of any cross mark. The menu says “top left corner of a cross.” It should say “top left quadrant.”

The number that’s highlighted in blue is the tool you’re testing. I’ve found that even if you are testing the right tool holder, you still position the left one in that quadrant.

When the blade is there, the optical eye under the motor box will be over the spot where the 2 lines cross.

Performing the Calibration test

Click Calibrate.

The optical eye looks for the printed lines. As long as it can find those, the pen/blade will draw/cut on the cross mark. It makes one horizontal line and one vertical line. I’ve used a blade on the left test cross here and a pen on the right one.

If your machine can’t find the marks, try your motor box positioning again.

Evaluating the marks and adjusting calibration

Unload the mat and grab a ruler with millimeter markings. Check the lines the machine made in relation to the printed cross mark. If either one isn’t on the line, measure the distance between the cut/sketch and the printed line. Don’t worry if the marks are longer than the cross mark — just if they are above/below/to the side the lines.
- If the horizontal mark is off, move the slider that’s left of the lines — the vertical one — in the window to adjust by the amount that it’s off. Move it up if the cut/drawn line is too far down; move it down if the line is too far up.
- If the vertical mark is off, move the slider bar that’s below the lines (the horizontal one). Move it to the right if your line is too far left and vice versa.

Calibration example

Let’s test these on mine. Look back at my photo above. You can see on both tests that the marks are at the bottom edge of the horizontal line and the left edge of the vertical line. That means on a print and cut, the machine would cut slightly to the left and below the outer line of the image. I want to aim to have them each in the center of the line. I use my ruler to measure and would say it’s about .5mm off.

What I would do is adjust the sliders and test again. You can move in tenths of millimeters, so by very small amounts as needed. I’m going to move the slider for the horizontal line only so you can compare it with the vertical one that I leave alone. I would move the left slider up until it reads -.5. (The negatives are above the 0 point). That tells the machine to cut .5mm farther up than it did before.

Sometimes you’ll notice the marks aren’t parallel to the lines on printed page.

If that happens, try checking to see if your page is straight on the mat. The more exact you are with that, the better the machine can test and adjust. (By the way, this applies to print and cut projects as well).

Testing again

Once you’ve adjusted any sliders as needed, load the mat again and test with another set of marks (that’s why there are 8 on the page).

Let’s do a second test on my marks. I’ll keep using a pen because I think that’s easier to see. Here’s my second test.

You can see that horizontal line did move up, but now it’s at the upper edge of the line. That means I moved the slider too much. I figure if I move it to -.25, I should be right on. So when I move that and test again, I get this.

There we go — smack dab in the middle of the horizontal line. I still have not adjusted the slider for the vertical line, so you can see how that’s still at the left edge of the line. Since I know how much to move it now, I would adjust the slider that’s under the lines by moving it to the right .25mm.

When the cuts/sketches are on the marks, select Exit at the bottom of the panel. The Calibration profile is saved, and the machine now knows where the blade should cut in relation to marks the optical eye reads.

What are the other tests?

There are 2 more tabs in the Calibration menu called Distance Adjustment and Tool Separation. As with Calibration, these are very minor adjustments in where the machine cuts. These are the little-known adjustments I talked about, but they can help with precision if that’s what you need.

Distance Adjustment

Let’s say you create a square on your Design area that’s precisely 2″ x 2″. But when you cut it, you notice it’s not quite that size. That’s what Distance Adjustment can help with.

I’m NOT talking about text. When you create a text box that’s 2″ x 2″ and cut your project, the word won’t come out to be 2″ x 2″. That’s because text box size ≠ cut size. I explain that in detail in this post.

I’m also NOT talking about print and cuts or cuts on the PixScan mat that aren’t the right size. That is often an error in the setup.

Distance Adjustment uses the same test page as Calibration. It’s why you see the A, B, 1 and 2 on the page.

Performing a Distance Adjustment Test

Here’s how this works:

If you haven’t printed the Calibration page, do that first.
Put the page on the mat and load the mat into your machine.
Click Cut Test Lines.

That cuts/draws short marks near the A, B, 1 and 2. You can see here I’ve got both a cut and pen mark by my B label.

Evaluating, adjusting and retesting the distance

Pull out your ruler with millimeters again. The distance between the cut/mark near A (or 1) should be 200 mm (20cm) from the cut/mark at B (or 2). My measurement of the pen marks shows it’s dead on the A and B, which means my shapes would cut perfectly width-wise. (Sorry — I couldn’t get a pic of both at once with proper perspective).

The 1 to 2 distance will affect the height of shapes.
If one of your sets of marks isn’t the right distance apart, you need to adjust.
- When the distance is greater than 200mm, you’ll move the slider to a lower number. That means the machine will compress the shapes a little.
- If the distance is less than 200mm, move the slider to a higher number so that the machine stretches the shapes a bit.
Unlike the Calibration, this page has only 1 set of marks. As you can see in my example, the test cuts won’t necessarily be in the same spot each time — just near the labels. So usually you can use the Calibration page multiple times. If you’re using a pen, you can use a different color for each test.
You don’t need to test tool holder 2 because any adjustments here will affect anything the machine cuts — no matter if you are using the left or right tool holder.

Tool Separation

This test is to see if your left and right tool holders are set to cut in the exact same spot. This is helpful for when you’re doing something different with each tool holder on a single piece of material and need high precision. You have the machine try to cut lines with each tool holder right on top of each other on a single piece of material.

On this one, you’ll put a blade or pen in each tool holder. Again, if you have a Silhouette sketch pen you can use different colors to make it easy, but only if it isn’t a Cameo 4 model. There are only certain tools you can use in tool holder 2 on a Cameo 4 and the pen is not one of them. So, Cameo 4 owners need to use the kraft blade in the right hand tool holder. It can be harder with the pens as they sketch a line wider than a blade cuts, but it’s easier to tell which is which. You could even use a pen in the left tool holder and a blade in the right.

If you have a machine with only 1 tool holder (early Cameo and Portrait models), you don’t need this test at all.

Performing a Tool Separation Test

Put your pens or tools in the 2 tool holders.
Put any material on your mat and load it.
Use the blue arrows to move the motor box somewhere on the page. If you don’t move it, it’s going to cut/draw into the top of your mat. The test will start right under where the tool in the left tool holder is.
Click Tool Separation Test.
Each tool will cut/draw horizontal and vertical lines. The lines made by each tool holder should be right on top of one another. If they aren’t, you need to adjust the measurement.

Evaluating, Adjusting and retesting the tool separation

As with the other tests, you need to measure the distance between the 2 marks if they aren’t right on top of each other. For some odd reason, this time the measurements are in inches instead of mm. That makes it harder to figure out just how much you need to move the number, so experimenting is your best bet. The most you can adjust by is .079″.
- X is for if the vertical (top to bottom) marks are off. If you take the measurement to a number above 0, the left tool will cut/draw in the same spot and the right one will cut/draw farther to the left.
- Y is for if the horizontal line (side to side) marks are the ones that are off. If you take the measurement to a number above 0, the left tool will cut/draw in the same spot and the right one will cut/draw farther down.
This particular test, in the current 4.4.464 version, has a weird quirk. When you try to adjust the sliders or use the arrows to adjust the measurement, they just jump back to 0. The only way I’ve found to do it is to type your numbers. Use the negative key on your computer keyboard when you need the number to go below 0.
Because you move the motor box anywhere on the page for this test, you can keep moving it to a new area and retesting.

Tool Separation Test examples

My lines are a bit off both on the horizontal marks and vertical marks on my Cameo 4 Plus. The marks are side by side, not on top of one another.

Here’s a test I did on my Curio with pink and blue pens. On the Curio, the right hand tool holder (my blue lines) sketches full length lines 3 times, while the left one (pink) only does short lines. You can see that my horizontal line is right on, but my vertical one isn’t.

I need to move the blue line so that the pen in tool holder 2 will draw slightly farther to the right. That means I’ll need to move my X number below 0. After some experimenting with that, I’ve got them right on. I only needed to move it .009″.

I could tweak it a tad more, but this is probably fine for the projects I do. Also, I would probably test this again with blades since as I said they are a bit more accurate because they make thinner lines.

What if it’s still off?

You need to understand that a machine in this price range is not going to have dead-on accuracy like ones that cost thousands of dollars. Be realistic in your expectations.

If after you’ve done these tests and adjusted and you feel that it’s still not where you need it, then you’ll need to contact Silhouette America’s Customer Support. Just don’t forget my admonition that if it’s off a large amount, something else is wrong in your file setup or cut settings.