Vinyl cutters are very useful if you are going to cut lots of material especially paper but they are also convenient as they are easy to use. There are so many machines out there however, such as Brother ScanNCut Vs Silhouette Cameo 4 that are able to use various functions just in one machine. These machines are amazing for crafters out there but before making a decision, do check what they can offer below so then we can shop wiser.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
- What do You Need to Cut Papers
- What are Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4
- What Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 Look Like
- How are the Cutting Ability of Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4
- How are the Scanning Function in Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4
- How are the Performance of Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4
- Brother ScanNCut Vs Silhouette Cameo 4
Cutting Tools
Creating stuff is fun, especially if you are patient and love being creative because it will allow you to realize various designs in your mind. The media is varying greatly however, depending on which of them seems best. Among those, paper arts is probably the most popular due to various reasons in which one of them is due to availability. You can find the material and tools to craft with them almost anywhere from a regular office supply to crafting stores.
| Brother ScanNCut | Silhouette Cameo 4 | |
|---|---|---|
  |   |
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| Product Dimensions | 23.25 x 11 x 11 inches | 23.25 x 11 x 11 inches |
| Shipping Weight | 1 pounds | 15.15 pounds |
| Best offer | Check price | Check price |
If you are here then it means paper art is also your hobby and just like everything, it is needed to have both materials and tools ready before beginning the creation. Chances are you already have few of them in the house but more serious or enthusiasts may want to have a lot more than just a small blade and scissor to handle their tasks. Here are some necessary tools you will find useful when dealing with papers or similar thin sheet of materials.
- Guillotine paper cutters are one of the most familiar equipment that we often see at stores and they are also very useful. As the name suggests this is a regular paper cutter in a traditional office setting where packages were wrapped or shipped. They provide a flat base and sharp, heavy blade to help you cut the paper precisely, even doing several layers at once. The blade can be replaced as well depending on the model and type.
- Rotary cutter is another similar tool for those doing paper craft. Instead of the blade installed at the machine, we are the one moving the blade and since it is in a circular shape, they glide easily on your material, unlike the regular long-shaped blade. They can however stray so it is important to assist it with a ruler.
- Hobby knife is the one we rely on when cutting designs. This is a very small blade like those in razor which is very sharp and installed on a handle shaped like a pencil. The fine edge is useful and reliable for when you have to cut following a pattern.
- Vinyl cutter or cutting machine is probably the most convenient of them all. Those cutting tools we mentioned above require a manual effort at different degrees but this one is almost automatic. The machine is very similar to a printer but instead of print head ejecting ink, it is a cutting clamp holding a small blade that cuts following your design. This allows the user to spend more effort and minimizing error during the cutting process.
About Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4
All of them are useful depending on which seems to fit in your activity the most because different people may see the process differently. If you enjoy every step from drawing the design and cutting them by yourselves then a blade or cutting equipment are the best to own but for those who are looking for convenience but still love playing with their creativity, an automatic machine will be the best choice.
Cutting machines or also called vinyl cutters may sound intimidating at first but they are not a complicated machine such as 3D printers that demand you to tweak a lot and even learn the bells and whistles of their software. In most cases the machine will do all the job for you and what we need is only placing or removing the material and attachment when needed. Among the options, Brother and Silhouette are two reliable brands you may want to consider.2
These are very well-known companies that make reliable paper cutting machines depending on what you aim for this equipment. If you are here then we assume that convenience is a must and with the abundance of choices it can be confusing as well with what you want to go with but, Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 are going to offer you both convenience and reliability in one machine that are also easy to use. Being different machines also makes them have different offers for you.
What we love the most from Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 is probably their capabilities. As a cutting machine they will do the cutting for you and this often stressing time now is much more enjoyable because they will handle the task for you. Both of them also allow you to turn a design that has been made or drawn on a sheet to be transferred into the machine to allow them to cut it for you. The mechanism however, is a bit different.
Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 Design
Just like any cutting machine of vinyl cutters out there, both of them are looking like a printer with a fairly low profile and a quite wide shape. The ScanNCut here is the newer machine as Brother has few of them and this specific model is their CM350E with a width of 23 inches, 11 inches of height and 11 inches of depth. It is a very low profile machine and very simple in design as well combined with an opening panel at the front and a small LCD panel at the top.
On the other hand the Cameo is much simpler. It is measured at 24.8 inches wide, 10 inches tall, and 8.8 inches deep. Unlike the ScanNCut which is featured with a color LCD panel, this machine only has a touch control on the right panel. Similarly the machine has a panel that opened up forward, exposing the cutting area and its cutting attachment. The prominent difference is probably this machine carries two clasp for two different attachments instead of one. Read also: Cricut Explore Air Vs Cricut Joy here.
Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 Cutting Ability
Moving further, as a cutting machine we are going to talk about their cutting ability first. Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 have similar machine dimensions and they seem to be able to cut in similar amounts of area as well with Cameo 4 offers up to 12 inches by 24 inches using their cutting mat and 12 inches by 10 inches without. On the other hand the Brothers similarly offer up to 12 inches by 24 inches using the cutting mat or 12 inches by 12 inches without the mat.
Their maximum requirement for material is also different because here Cameo 4 is allowing users to cut materials up to 3mm thick using this machine while Brothers only recommend to cut fabric up to 1.5mm thick or paper only up to 0.3mm thick. As for the cutting force, ScanNCut especially this CM350E offers a 350 grams of weight while the first clasp Cameo 4 is 210 grams and the second is 5000 grams.
Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 Feature
The next part we want to talk about is their additional function and this is scanning. We have been using the available designs in the machine software for various machines but now we can make our own and load them into the Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 conveniently. The method is quite different however so let’s start with ScanNCut first. In this machine the unit acts as a scanner as well so we can put the design into a mat and feed it to the machine.
It will then capture the image that you can adjust through the color screen on the machine. From here we can cut the actual design itself or load another material to follow the scanned design and cut it. On the Cameo 4, the scanner is actually your smartphone’s camera itself as you have to take a picture of it on top of the PixScan mat. This is then loaded into their software and here we can tweak it as well then send to the machine to be cut.
Brother ScanNCut and Silhouette Cameo 4 Performance
Last is their performance and in this part they are actually working really well. But, they are also different because while it is faster to scan and cut using Brother, it is also inconvenient to manipulate the design through the screen unlike when using a full software on the computer. In addition the two clasp of Cameo allow you to mount different tools hence there is no need to change it for drawing and cutting, moreover we can cut thicker material with this machine.
Brother ScanNCut Vs Silhouette Cameo 4
Being creative doesn’t mean you have to manually do all the process yourselves because we can use these machines to ease the job. In comparison Cameo 4 has two clasps to hold different attachments and has a much stronger cutting force to handle thicker materials but it doesn’t have a built in scanner and colored control panel so we need another device to work with the machine.
Conclusion
Overall these are great machines with their own pros and cons yet, among the two if we were to recommend one then Cameo 4 is a better option for its stronger cutting force since this is what we need to handle a wider variant of materials.
