DIY Vinyl Printing with Inkjet Printable Vinyl Sheets

Ever in need of a specific patterned vinyl, but can't find it? You can print full sheets of printable vinyl at home!

It's possible to create custom printed vinyl sheets with your home inkjet printer and printable adhesive vinyl.
DIY vinyl printing can be done with digital patterns, an inkjet printer, Oracal printable vinyl, and clear Oracal laminate.

Start by finding and downloading your digital patterns.  You want a high resolution seamless pattern in a JPEG format if possible. I am using a couple of patterns from this Digital Pattern Pack from So Fontsy to make some DIY printable vinyl sheets.

Open Silhouette Studio and go to your Library.  With Silhouette Studio Designer Edition (and higher) you're able to import custom patterns.

Right click on the Patterns folder in the library and select "New Folder".

Name the folder something like "Vinyl Patterns".

This is where we are going to place our digital patterns by dragging and dropping them either into the folder or into the preview pane on right side (it depends which version of Silhouette Studio you are using).

Now move to the Design area of Silhouette Studio.  Open the Page Set Up panel and change the Page Size to Current Printer.  Check the box to show the Print Border.

OPTIONAL: If you want Silhouette Studio to print to the edge of the page, you need to adjust your print settings to borderless printing, if your printer has the ability to print edge to edge. This Silhouette School tutorial on how to print without a border will walk you through.

Open the Fill panel and click on the Patterns tab (third tab). Scroll down to the section called "Vinyl Patterns" and select the digital pattern you want to print.

Click the Draw Rectangle tool from the left tool bar.  Use your mouse to draw out a rectangle the same size as the page. Since you selected the pattern first the rectangle will fill with the pattern as your draw the shape.

Now you can keep the pattern as it is or you can adjust it any number of ways through the Advanced Options on the Patterns tab.

You are able to mirror, scale, pan, rotate or change the angle of the pattern using the controls.  Be careful when scaling if you are not using a seamless digital pattern as you will get boxes if you scale too small.

To make the colors as vibrant as possible when printing you want to do two things. First select the pattern-filled rectangle you created and open the Image effects tool from the left sidebar. From the Contrast tab (third tab) increase the Saturation slightly.

Secondly, go to the Preferences and from the General tab change the DPI to 1200.

To print your own DIY pattern vinyl sheets place a sheet of Oracal printable vinyl in your inkjet printer. Be sure the inkjet printable vinyl sheet is placed in the tray correctly so it prints on the front side.

Silhouette Studio click the Print icon along the top tool bar.  From your printer settings, if you have the option to change the material, change it to Premium Photo Paper and Best quality.  Send it to print.

The final step is to add the Oracal laminate sheet over the printed vinyl. The laminate is a UV protection to help against fading and smearing. Keep in mind - the quality of the ink in your printer also has a lot to do with the long term performance of the colors.

This video will show you how to lay laminate sheet on the Oracal printable vinyl sheet.

Now you can use the custom printed vinyl sheets just like any other vinyl and cut out designs using your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait!

 Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!

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