The Contour tool of the Cricut machine is one of the essential design tools which works with layers in Design Space. It allows you to show or hide details within a picture layer so you can select parts of the design you want to cut. In particular, the Contour tool will allow you to hide individual contour lines – cut lines within a picture layer.
Where can you find the Contour button?
You’ll find the Contour tool inside the Cricut Design Spaces desktop program or mobile app.
On the desktop: You’ll find the Contour tool at the bottom of the Layers panel on the right of the Design Space Canvas screen. The Contour button will be next to the other layer tools: Slice, Weld, Attach, and Flatten. The Contour icon looks like a dashed-line circle.
On mobile: You’ll find the Contour tool in the Actions sub-menu in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen on the last right-side button.
Here are the best three methods to use the Contour tool
First, open the Design Space app, turn on your Cricut machine and look at some examples.
1. Use Contour to choose which parts of the picture to cut
In this example, I’ll show you how to use the Contour tool to “turn off” parts of a picture so that you can only cut out the pieces you want. You can use this method to separate parts of your picture into separate layers so that you can cut them on different mats.
Then, add a picture to your Design Space Canvas. I selected this picture of 3 flowers from the Cricut Access library. Although these flowers are not overlapping, they are on the same layer.
Choose the Layer and press Contour. This drags the Hide Contour window up. Press on different picture parts to hide. I have hidden the left and right side flowers in the screenshot below, and the middle flower is showing.
Next, copy this layer, and repeat the process. On the second layer, hide every part of the design except the left side flower. And on the third layer, hide every part of the design except the right side flower.
When you look at the Layers panel, I see all 3 flowers on their respective layers. Now, I can edit them separately and cut them on different mats.
2. Use Contour to draw out details from a complex picture
I will show you how to simplify a complex design by using the Contour tool to “turn off” some minor details in this example. We use the Contour tool, similar to the Eraser tool, to remove unwanted cut lines from the picture.
Start by adding a picture to the Design Space Canvas. For this example, I’m using a circle picture with the word “Merci,” surrounded by some floral motif.
You want to “turn off” the flower design but leave the word “Merci.” To do this, choose the layer and press on Contour. It will open the Hide Contours window. Use the preview picture on the left or right side of the panel; press on every cut line you want to hide. In this picture, you will need to hide the shape of the botanical motif and every tiny dot that makes the inner side of the leaves.
When you press the backside of the Canvas screen, you will see that the botanical motif is hidden, and you are left with the circle and the word “Merci.”
3. Use Contour to convert a single-color picture to a multi-color picture
In this example, I’ll show you how to use the Matched and Contour tools to make different parts of the same picture different colors.
Start by adding a picture to the Design Space Canvas. We want to make each word a different color. In this example, I’m using the phrase “Quilters Gonna Quilt.”
Please press on the layer, and copy it twice. You’ll have 3 copies of the picture. Choose every 3 layers and use the Align tool to center them vertically and horizontally. Now, every 3 copies will be stacked on top of each other.
Next, choose a layer and press on Contour. In the Hide Contours window, press to hide every cut line, except the cut lines in the word “quilters.” Press Back on the main Canvas screen, and change the color of this layer to Light blue.
Then, choose the second layer and press on Contour. In the Hide Contours window, press to hide every cut line, except for the lines in the word “Gonna.” Press Back on the main Canvas screen, and change the color of this layer to Medium Blue.
Next, choose the third layer, and press on Contour. In the Hide Contours window, press to hide every cut line, except those cut in the word “Quilt.” Press Back on the main Canvas screen, and change the color of this layer to Dark blue. Now that you have a multi-color picture, you can cut it out of different materials. Or, you can take an additional step to flatten these layers with the background layer, cut the project as a Print, and cut the project.
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Source :- https://cricutmakersteup.com/3-methods-to-use-the-cricut-contour-tool-in-the-design-space-app/
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