Over the weekend, people who own Handicraft machines from Cricut– which are printer-like devices that can slice documents accurately – I’ve heard of an upcoming update that will limit how often can they use the machines they paid. The company, whose cheapest machine is $ 180, will now start charging users a monthly subscription for unlimited printing, which was previously free.
Using Cricut machines requires the use of the company’s proprietary Design Space software for desktop PCs and mobile devices. It allows designs to be imported from other software programs, such as Adobe Illustrator, and organized to maximize the use of a piece of paper. Some of the more sophisticated papers that work with Cricut can be expensive. Design Space also allows custom art to be created from scratch using a giant library of downloadable fonts, graphics and patterns – some of which are free, most are not.
As we pointed out in our review of Cricut Joy last year, not only can machine work be expensive if you trust the company’s designs, but everything has to be processed using Design Space software before cutting instructions are sent to the machines. Until last weekend, the extra step was a minor inconvenience, but now the company has promised a future software update that seems a little unfair to users who have already paid for the hardware.
In a shared post on Cricut Blog on Friday, the company details several updates to the Design Space software, but it is this particular paragraph that leaves users up in arms:
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The company already offers monthly and annual Cricut Access subscription plans that give you access to the library of designs, graphics and fonts available through the Design Space app at a cheaper price than buying them all individually. If you rely heavily on these downloads for your projects, subscriptions are not a bad idea, but until recently they were completely optional and were not required to use Cricut machines. That will soon change.
Before the art is sent to Cricut’s machines to be sliced, it is first sent to the cloud, where Cricut’s servers optimize the design and cutting instructions. There is currently no limit, and Cricut users can submit as many designs as they like, including multiple revisions if the optimized results don’t go as they wish. But soon the Design Space app will limit users without a paid subscription to just “20 images and / or personal patterns” per month. Casual artisans may never reach that limit, but those who rely on machines to make money, like those who sell their creations through an Etsy store, will have no choice but to start paying at least $ 10 / month or $ 96 / year to continue to use your Cricut machines.
There is no timetable for when Cricut will begin to apply the limit of 20 uploads / month or if new cheaper subscription plans will be introduced to accommodate those affected. We have contacted Cricut representatives for comment and will update this story if they can provide more information about this update and what it means for all Cricut users.