How do I turn a picture into a stencil?

Press Choose a picture, or drop one onto the dark stage: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF and BMP files open. Set the threshold from 0 to 255 and whether the darker or the lighter parts are cut. The islands line then says how many pieces would fall out; press Add bridge beside one, or Bridge all islands, until it reads 0. Then press SVG, PNG or Print. The example ring shows the whole process on a picture made for it.

Can I make letter, name or word stencils?

Yes. Type up to 240 characters over eight lines in Stencil text, choose Sans, Serif or Monospace, and press Make text stencil. This replaces the current picture and bridges with a black text image using fonts available on your device. Use Threshold with Cut where set to Darker for filled letters, or Edges for outlines; your settings stay as chosen. Check the islands and add bridges before exporting. The text is not remembered, and the page does not create a downloadable font file or supply calligraphy fonts.

Can I make a spray-paint, graffiti or pumpkin stencil?

Use your own artwork or typed lettering, then choose Threshold for filled shapes or Edges for outlines. Check the loose islands and add bridges before saving or printing. This supplies a two-dimensional stencil design; it does not know your surface, paint, cutting tool or material, and it provides no built-in graffiti or pumpkin artwork library.

Can I prepare a tattoo stencil design here?

You can turn a supplied drawing or photo into black-and-white stencil artwork and export or print it. Edges mode makes outline artwork, while Threshold makes filled shapes. The page provides no tattoo designs, skin-transfer workflow, thermal-printer driver or tattoo application instructions.

Does it make layered stencils, PDF files or 3D models?

It makes one cut mask from one image or text design. It does not separate colours into registered stencil layers, generate STL or 3D printer models, or export a PDF file. Use the existing SVG, PNG or Print controls for the shown two-dimensional stencil.

What are islands and bridges in a stencil?

An island is a piece of the sheet that a cut surrounds, so nothing holds it once the stencil is cut: the centre of an O, or the disc inside a ring. A bridge is a strip of sheet left uncut across that cut, which joins the piece to the rest. In the example, a black ring 30 pixels thick leaves its 7,860 pixel centre loose, and one bridge 8 pixels wide across the top of the ring holds it, taking the cut from 12,248 to 12,008 pixels.

Why is a piece that touches the sheet at a corner still flagged?

Two squares that meet only at a corner share a point, not an edge, and a point has no width to hold material. So the sheet here holds together only through pixels that share a side, and a piece joined to the rest only at a corner is flagged as an island. Cut areas are treated the other way round: two cut pixels that meet at a corner count as one cut region.

What do threshold mode and edges mode do?

Each pixel's brightness is 0.299 times its red plus 0.587 green plus 0.114 blue, with any transparent part laid over white. Threshold mode cuts every pixel darker than the threshold, or lighter when Cut where is set to Lighter; a pixel exactly at the threshold is never cut. Edges mode cuts only a band inside each of those shapes, as wide as the edge width, from 1 to 50 pixels, measured to the nearest pixel on the other side with a diagonal step counted as one pixel; a shape thinner than twice that width is cut right through.

What does min region do?

Cut specks smaller than the min region, in pixels, are left as sheet, and islands smaller than it are cut away with the cut around them, so a single stray pixel does not become a cut or a loose piece of its own. The settings panel says how many of each it removed. Set it to 0 to keep every pixel. Bridges come after this step, so a bridge is never removed by it.

What is in the SVG and PNG files?

The SVG holds a white rectangle for the sheet and the cut shapes as one near-black path, traced along pixel edges, with the sheet sized in millimetres to the width on paper you set, from 10 to 2,000 mm. With Mark islands and bridges on, any islands and bridges are added as filled layers with the ids islands and bridges; with it off, the file holds only the sheet and the cut. The PNG holds the same pixels as the stage's Stencil view, at 1, 2 or 4 times their size. Both add a border of sheet, 4% of the picture's long side and at least 4 pixels, so a cut that reaches the picture's edge stays inside the sheet.

How big is the printed stencil?

Print opens the stencil on its own at the width on paper you set, and shrinks it to fit when the paper's printable area is smaller. For a stencil larger than one sheet of paper, the SVG carries the same size in millimetres.

Is my picture uploaded, and how large a picture can it open?

Nothing is uploaded. The picture is decoded and traced in this browser tab, and the page remembers only its settings, never the picture or its bridges. It works on the picture at up to 300, 600, 1,000 or 1,500 pixels on its long side, the Detail you choose, and never enlarges it. Before decoding, it reads the picture's declared size from its header and refuses one over 16,384 pixels a side or 100 megapixels, with a message saying so.

Is this a free stencil maker program I can use in my browser?

Yes. Use this browser program to turn your picture into a stencil, adjust Threshold or Edges, add bridges, and save SVG or PNG or print the design. The core workflow is free and needs no account. You do not need to install a program, and this page does not supply an installable app or font-making package.

Stencil Maker

Choose a picture or type letters, a name or a short quote. Adjust the cut, check which pieces would fall out, and add bridges to hold them. Save the same bridged stencil as SVG or PNG, or print it at the width you choose.

Turn a picture into a stencil

PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP. It is read in this browser and never uploaded.

Choose a picture

Cut: no picture yet
Islands: none yet
Island #1: none
Bridges: 0

Detail and export

Width on paper, mm

The picture is worked at up to the detail you choose on its long side, never enlarged. Every export adds a border of sheet, 4% of the long side and at least 4 px, so a cut that reaches the picture's edge stays inside the sheet. The SVG is 200 mm wide, and so is the print when that fits the paper; the PNG is the stage's pixels times the scale.

Black ring on white, 200 x 200 pxradii 50 and 80, threshold 128
1 interior island flagged: the centre disc, 7,860 px
Bridge 8 px wide, (100, 16) to (100, 54)drawn across the top of the ring
0 islands: the disc stays joined to the sheet; cut 12,248 to 12,008 px
Uniform white imageany threshold
No cut geometry: the page says nothing would be cut instead of writing an empty or broken SVG

Common questions

How do I turn a picture into a stencil?: Press Choose a picture, or drop one onto the dark stage: PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF and BMP files open. Set the threshold from 0 to 255 and whether the darker or the lighter parts are cut. The islands line then says how many pieces would fall out; press Add bridge beside one, or Bridge all islands, until it reads 0. Then press SVG, PNG or Print. The example ring shows the whole process on a picture made for it.
Can I make letter, name or word stencils?: Yes. Type up to 240 characters over eight lines in Stencil text, choose Sans, Serif or Monospace, and press Make text stencil. This replaces the current picture and bridges with a black text image using fonts available on your device. Use Threshold with Cut where set to Darker for filled letters, or Edges for outlines; your settings stay as chosen. Check the islands and add bridges before exporting. The text is not remembered, and the page does not create a downloadable font file or supply calligraphy fonts.
Can I make a spray-paint, graffiti or pumpkin stencil?: Use your own artwork or typed lettering, then choose Threshold for filled shapes or Edges for outlines. Check the loose islands and add bridges before saving or printing. This supplies a two-dimensional stencil design; it does not know your surface, paint, cutting tool or material, and it provides no built-in graffiti or pumpkin artwork library.
Can I prepare a tattoo stencil design here?: You can turn a supplied drawing or photo into black-and-white stencil artwork and export or print it. Edges mode makes outline artwork, while Threshold makes filled shapes. The page provides no tattoo designs, skin-transfer workflow, thermal-printer driver or tattoo application instructions.
Does it make layered stencils, PDF files or 3D models?: It makes one cut mask from one image or text design. It does not separate colours into registered stencil layers, generate STL or 3D printer models, or export a PDF file. Use the existing SVG, PNG or Print controls for the shown two-dimensional stencil.
What are islands and bridges in a stencil?: An island is a piece of the sheet that a cut surrounds, so nothing holds it once the stencil is cut: the centre of an O, or the disc inside a ring. A bridge is a strip of sheet left uncut across that cut, which joins the piece to the rest. In the example, a black ring 30 pixels thick leaves its 7,860 pixel centre loose, and one bridge 8 pixels wide across the top of the ring holds it, taking the cut from 12,248 to 12,008 pixels.
Why is a piece that touches the sheet at a corner still flagged?: Two squares that meet only at a corner share a point, not an edge, and a point has no width to hold material. So the sheet here holds together only through pixels that share a side, and a piece joined to the rest only at a corner is flagged as an island. Cut areas are treated the other way round: two cut pixels that meet at a corner count as one cut region.
What do threshold mode and edges mode do?: Each pixel's brightness is 0.299 times its red plus 0.587 green plus 0.114 blue, with any transparent part laid over white. Threshold mode cuts every pixel darker than the threshold, or lighter when Cut where is set to Lighter; a pixel exactly at the threshold is never cut. Edges mode cuts only a band inside each of those shapes, as wide as the edge width, from 1 to 50 pixels, measured to the nearest pixel on the other side with a diagonal step counted as one pixel; a shape thinner than twice that width is cut right through.
What does min region do?: Cut specks smaller than the min region, in pixels, are left as sheet, and islands smaller than it are cut away with the cut around them, so a single stray pixel does not become a cut or a loose piece of its own. The settings panel says how many of each it removed. Set it to 0 to keep every pixel. Bridges come after this step, so a bridge is never removed by it.
What is in the SVG and PNG files?: The SVG holds a white rectangle for the sheet and the cut shapes as one near-black path, traced along pixel edges, with the sheet sized in millimetres to the width on paper you set, from 10 to 2,000 mm. With Mark islands and bridges on, any islands and bridges are added as filled layers with the ids islands and bridges; with it off, the file holds only the sheet and the cut. The PNG holds the same pixels as the stage's Stencil view, at 1, 2 or 4 times their size. Both add a border of sheet, 4% of the picture's long side and at least 4 pixels, so a cut that reaches the picture's edge stays inside the sheet.
How big is the printed stencil?: Print opens the stencil on its own at the width on paper you set, and shrinks it to fit when the paper's printable area is smaller. For a stencil larger than one sheet of paper, the SVG carries the same size in millimetres.
Is my picture uploaded, and how large a picture can it open?: Nothing is uploaded. The picture is decoded and traced in this browser tab, and the page remembers only its settings, never the picture or its bridges. It works on the picture at up to 300, 600, 1,000 or 1,500 pixels on its long side, the Detail you choose, and never enlarges it. Before decoding, it reads the picture's declared size from its header and refuses one over 16,384 pixels a side or 100 megapixels, with a message saying so.
Is this a free stencil maker program I can use in my browser?: Yes. Use this browser program to turn your picture into a stencil, adjust Threshold or Edges, add bridges, and save SVG or PNG or print the design. The core workflow is free and needs no account. You do not need to install a program, and this page does not supply an installable app or font-making package.

A geometry assistant, worked out in your browser: it counts every part of the sheet that would come loose at your settings, lists up to 50 of them largest first, and keeps every bridge you draw uncut in the SVG, the PNG and the print. It cannot know whether your material, blade or laser will hold a bridge that narrow or cut a detail that small, so a clean preview is not a promise that the stencil will cut cleanly.