Design Studio by Provocraft Review

Overall 3.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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desiab
Picayune, MS

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An exciting companion to the Cricut by Provocraft!

a bargain hunter

Pros

Ease of use, Free trial version, Limitless possibilities

Cons

Limited customization, Entirely cartridge based

FEB

2008

For a very long time users of the Cricut have asked for the ability to plug the Cricut into the computer and cut out their own creations. ProvoCraft listened and last year release software called DesignStudio. You are able to use the program to create unique combinations of shapes or words, plug your Cricut into the computer with a USB cable, and Voila instruct it to cut. There are definite features that we have come to expect in a graphics program that Design Studio is lacking, but it makes up for that in other ways.

This program allows you to create titles and words by welding the individual letters together. You are also able to be creative with using pictures intermingled with the letters. Cardmaking is a snap when you are able to lay out the entire card with the words on the front or designs on the side and cut.

Design Studio is available as a free trial version or as the full program. The trial version limits you to only be able to cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge with the Cricut or Plantin Schoolbook and Accent Essentials with the Expression. You can work with all of the features and cartridges in the Provocraft library, but you will only be able to cut in the combinations previously mentioned.

One drawback of the program is that you have to own the cartridge to be able to use it in Design Studio to cut. That can be a source of frustration. You see this awesome project posted on the Cricut forums and you don't own all of the cartridges needed.

On the other hand, a definite plus is that one cartridge has limitless potential. You would be surprised at the variety of projects that have been created with just basic shapes. Another plus to the software is that the project files can be saved and shared. My creativity is not always at its best, so I am able to use files freely shared on the Cricut forums.

DesignStudio is still in its infancy stages and has some kinks to work out, but overall it looks promising.