Photo to Stencil: Cut a Stencil from Any Photo
Make a one-layer stencil from a photo in your browser. Set the threshold, let bridges hold every loose piece, and save it at its real size.
How to make a stencil from a photo
- Drop a JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or AVIF on the box above. It opens in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
- Type the width you want in centimetres. The height follows the photo, and the page shows the number of A4 pages the PDF needs.
- Move the Threshold until the subject reads clearly in the preview. Black is what gets cut out, white stays.
- Raise Smoothing and Remove details until the edges and specks look right. Keep Hold islands with bridges on, so no loose piece falls out.
- Press Download PNG, SVG or PDF. A stencil wider than one A4 page comes as several pages, each marked with its row and column.
Why I built it
I built this for the moment a photo has to become a stencil on a wall, a box or a shirt. A flat sheet falls apart as soon as it is cut, so the bridges and the page split are built in, and the photo stays on your own device.
The settings start where I would start myself: a threshold of 128, smoothing at 0.1 mm, details under 1.0 mm removed and bridges 1.5 mm wide. A sheet of 20 cm is drawn at 300 DPI. A sheet bigger than about 860 square centimetres, such as 31 by 28 cm, is drawn at fewer dots per inch, so the browser keeps working.
Sheet sizes for a square photo
A square photo gives a square stencil, so its height equals its width. The table shows the tool's own numbers for a 1:1 photo. DPI is the resolution of the PNG, and A4 pages is the number of sheets the PDF needs.
| Width | Height | DPI | A4 pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 cm | 20.0 cm | 300 | 2 |
| 40 cm | 40.0 cm | 220 | 6 |
| 60 cm | 60.0 cm | 147 | 12 |
| 100 cm | 100.0 cm | 88 | 24 |
At 100 cm the PDF runs over six columns and four rows of pages, and each page is marked with its row and column. The SVG stays one file at the full size.
Why a stencil needs bridges
A stencil is cut out with the dark parts removed. A light piece that is completely surrounded by cut-out area has nothing left to hold it, so it falls out as soon as the knife is through. Such a piece is an island, and a photo has many of them: the centre of a letter O, the highlight in an eye, the gap between two fingers.
With bridges on, the tool finds the shortest route from each island to the edge of the sheet and leaves a strip of material along it. The strip is 1.5 mm wide by default. Bridge width changes it, and a narrower strip cuts cleaner but tears more easily.
Threshold, smoothing and small details
The threshold decides which pixels are dark enough to cut. Everything darker than the number becomes black, and everything lighter stays. Moving it left cuts less, moving it right cuts more, and the preview shows the change at once.
Smoothing blurs the brightness before the threshold, up to 0.5 mm, so a grainy photo gives rounder edges. Remove details takes out any black or white speck smaller than the size you set. A default of 1.0 mm removes a stray dot and keeps a shape that is a centimetre across.
Size, pages and the three files
The width you type is the real width of the stencil, from 1 to 200 cm. The PNG is drawn at 300 DPI when the sheet is small enough, and at a lower density for very large sheets, up to 12 million pixels. The SVG keeps the same size in millimetres, so a cutting machine or a design program opens it at the right scale.
The PDF is split over A4 pages. Each page prints at full size, with its tile number, row and column at the bottom, so the sheet can be put back together. Print with scaling set to 100 % or actual size, and switch fit-to-page off.
Tips for better results
- Start with a sheet of 20 cm or less. A small stencil shows you the cut and the bridges before you commit to a large sheet.
- Use a photo with strong light and dark areas. Soft grey photos turn into blobs unless you lower the threshold.
- Turn bridges off once to see which islands would fall out, then turn them back on before you download.
- Set Remove details to the finest line your knife or vinyl cutter can follow. Each detail is judged in millimetres, so a thinner line goes.
Privacy
Your photo never leaves your device. It is decoded, cut and saved in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Is Photo to Stencil free to use?
Yes. It is free and needs no account. The cutting runs in your browser, so you can make a stencil on a phone or a laptop and download the PNG, SVG or PDF at once, with nothing to install.
What is a bridge on a stencil?
A bridge is a short strip of material that joins a loose piece to the rest of the sheet. Without one, an enclosed piece falls out when you cut. This tool adds one bridge for each island, 1.5 mm wide by default, and you can narrow or widen it.
How big a stencil can I make?
Any width from 1 to 200 cm, with the height taken from your photo. A stencil wider than one A4 page is split over several pages in the PDF. The SVG keeps the full size in millimetres.
Which file should I download for cutting?
Use the SVG for a vinyl cutter or a cutting machine, because it holds the shapes as vector paths at the size you chose. Use the PNG for printing on a home printer, and the PDF when the stencil is too big for one sheet of paper.
Is my photo uploaded when I make a stencil?
No. The photo is decoded, cut and saved in your browser, so it stays on your device. Nothing is sent to a server, and no account is needed to download the stencil.
Related tools and guides
- Image to Stencil for Vinyl, Paint or Print: Convert an image to a stencil file you can cut or print. Pick the width, tune the cut, and take the result as an SVG, a PNG or a tiled PDF.
- Stencil Maker from Photo, Sized to Your Cut: Turn a photo into a stencil at the width you choose. Set the threshold, let bridges hold the loose pieces and download it at its real size.
- Image Resizer: Resize images by pixels, percentage or longest side.
- Image Cropper: Crop images to exact ratios or popular preset sizes.
- Put your photos together in one image: Join photos side by side, stacked or in a grid, with adjustable gaps and borders.
- Add text to your photo and keep it readable: Put captions on a photo with a gradient, tint or box behind them and a live contrast check.
- I Built the Tools I Kept Looking For as a Photographer: Why these tools run in your browser and never upload a file.