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.
How to make a stencil from a photo at a set width
- Drop your photo on the box above. A 3:2 camera photo is the easiest start, because its height is two thirds of its width.
- The width box already says 20 cm. The height follows your photo and appears under the preview, next to the number of A4 pages.
- Slide the Threshold to the left until only the darkest shapes are black, then look at the preview at full size.
- Keep Hold islands with bridges on and read the bridge count under the preview. Each count is one light piece that would have dropped out.
- Press Download PNG for a home printer, or Download SVG for a cutting machine. A stencil too big for one A4 page comes out of the PDF as several pages, one per tile.
Why I start every stencil at 20 cm
A 20 cm stencil is the size I give every new photo before I make it larger. It shows the shapes clearly, it is small enough to cut by hand, and it fits on one landscape A4 page, so the first print needs no taping. At that width the tool draws the PNG at 300 DPI, the usual resolution for a printed photo.
Bridges are the part I would not skip. A light piece that the dark shapes surround has nothing to hold it, and it drops out when the knife goes through. The tool joins each such piece to the edge of the sheet with a strip of material, and the count under the preview tells you how many strips it added. Look at the strips in the preview before you cut, because a stencil with a loose centre is useless.
Sheet sizes for a 3:2 photo
The width you type decides everything else. This table is the tool's own arithmetic for a 3:2 camera 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 | 13.3 cm | 300 | 1 |
| 30 cm | 20.0 cm | 300 | 2 |
| 45 cm | 30.0 cm | 239 | 4 |
| 60 cm | 40.0 cm | 180 | 8 |
The 45 cm and 60 cm rows reach the 12 million pixel limit, so the browser draws them at fewer dots per inch. The cut itself is the same, because every detail is measured in millimetres.
What a stencil is made of
A stencil is a sheet with holes in it. Paint or spray goes through the holes and leaves the shape on the wall, a box or a shirt. The black parts of the preview are the holes, and the white parts are the material that stays. This tool follows that rule, so the dark shapes of your photo become the openings you cut.
Because the openings are cut, every white piece has to touch the rest of the sheet somehow. That is the reason the bridges exist, and the reason a stencil made from a photo differs from a plain black and white copy of it.
Choosing the width and the height
Type the width in centimetres, from 1 to 200. The height is worked out from your photo, so a 3:2 photo at 30 cm is 20 cm high. Nothing is cropped, and the whole photo becomes the stencil.
A sheet fits one A4 page at full size when it is no wider than 19.7 cm and no taller than 28.4 cm, or the other way round in landscape. Anything bigger is split in the PDF into tiles, each printed at full size, with its row and column written at the bottom. The SVG and the PNG keep the sheet whole.
Threshold and smoothing on a camera photo
The threshold is the brightness that separates the cut from the stay. It starts at 128, which is the middle of the scale. Move it left for a photo with bright skies and a dark subject, and right when the subject is pale and the shadows are the shapes you want.
Smoothing blurs the photo a little before the threshold runs. It starts at 0.1 mm, and its top setting of 0.5 mm rounds the edges of a grainy shot without losing the outline of a face or a hand.
Tips for better results
- Pick the width of the object you will paint, then judge the detail that remains at that size.
- Use a sharp photo. Blur turns into a grey halo, and the threshold then cuts the halo into a ring.
- Keep bridges on for any stencil you will actually cut, and turn them off only to see what they hold.
- After printing the PDF, measure one edge with a ruler to confirm the scale before you cut the sheet.
Privacy
Your photo never leaves your device. It is decoded, cut and saved in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make a stencil from a photo for free?
Yes. The stencil maker runs in your browser at no cost and needs no account. Drop the photo, set the width and download the PNG, SVG or PDF. Nothing is uploaded, so the file stays on the device you are using.
What width should my first stencil be?
Start with 20 cm. A 3:2 photo then becomes 20 by 13.3 cm, which fits one landscape A4 page, and the PNG is drawn at 300 DPI. Larger widths work too, but past about 30 by 28 cm the dots per inch fall.
Why do pieces fall out when I cut a stencil?
A light piece surrounded by the cut area has no material holding it, so it drops out. Keep Hold islands with bridges on, and the tool joins each such piece to the edge of the sheet with a strip, 1.5 mm wide by default.
What does the threshold change on a stencil maker?
It sets the brightness at which a pixel is cut. Pixels darker than the number become black and are cut out, and lighter pixels stay as material. The default is 128, and the preview redraws as you move the slider.
Is my photo sent to a server to make the stencil?
No. The photo is read, cut and saved in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed to download the stencil in any of its three formats.
Related tools and guides
- Photo to Stencil: Cut a Stencil from Any Photo: Turn a photo into a cuttable stencil with bridges and a physical size.
- 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.
- 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.