The Silhouette Portrait 4 is a handy cutting plotter with a 203 mm aperture width. The Silhouette Portrait 4 impressed us with its performance and precision - especially in relation to its low price and handy dimensions. We can therefore recommend this device, which has been further improved in the current version, for ambitious hobbyists and semi-professional users without reservation. New in version 4 is the repeat button, with which you can simply start the last job again, making it very easy to produce small series. The Silhouette Portrait 4 is also significantly quieter in operation than its predecessor. Noise development was a frequent point of criticism.
Portrait 4 automatically recognizes the tool and adapters used. This saves you time and avoids errors, as you no longer have to manually feed the software with the information. The included automatic knife with fast adjustment technology automatically adopts the value you have previously set in the Silhouette Studio software before cutting. In addition to the automatic knife, you can cut materials up to a thickness of 2 mm with the separately available power knife or the manual knife (accessory). You can also use the Silhouette Sketch Pen (accessory) or a pen holder (accessory) to draw and write on your backgrounds with as many pens as you like. Optionally, you can even create metallic effects with the hot transfer pen (accessory) with hot glue foil.
With the Silhouette Portrait 4, you also have the option of plotting paper without a cutting mat (pop-out cut). You can connect the Silhouette Portrait 4 wirelessly to your computer via Bluetooth, or optionally with a USB cable, although this is not included in the scope of delivery.
Print & Cut technology: The Portrait 4 cutting plotter has a built-in optical sensor to read registration marks. You can create these registration marks in the Silhouette Studio and then print them out. The optical sensor finds the registration marks on your printed motif and the Portrait 4 cuts out the contours razor-sharp. This is useful, for example, if you want to create individual stickers, labels or textile transfer designs.
The PixScan technology allows you to use a camera or scanner to cut precisely around a printed design or to place the desired cutting lines on the material. Your smartphone or tablet is also ideal for this. The PixScan algorithm enables the Silhouette Portrait 4 to recognize specially placed registration marks on the PixScan cutting mat. The technology is ideal for saving scanned or photographed motifs in your personal digital library or for converting a hand sketch into a new, user-defined cutting file.
The included Silhouette Studio software is the strongest and most powerful design software for hobby cutting systems on the market, offering you features normally only found in high-end design software. Silhouette Studio offers a range of functions for entering text, drawing shapes, importing images and creating outlines, which of course cannot be compared with the capabilities of professional programs such as Illustrator or Corel Draw. Optional cloud storage with 1 GB data volume is available free of charge via the Silhouette Studio software upon registration.
The Silhouette Portrait 4 can draw paths, cut out precisely and perforate. These work steps can also be combined so that a finished cut-out shape can contain drawn, perforated and cut elements. This results in a wide range of applications in the fields of handicrafts, model making, packaging design and prototyping, for example:
- Cutting out scanned and/or drawn shapes and images after printing
- downward foil lettering up to a font height of 5-10 mm (when weeding serifs in very small fonts, however, there is a limit to what is possible)
- Labels, greeting cards, folded cards and business cards
- Stencils (stencils, sandblasting foils)
- windowed facades in architectural model making
- Silhouette figures made from cardboard
- Templates for textile transfer (flocking)
- Ready-made craft sheets (over 200 templates, especially for crafting with children, can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet)
You can process these materials with the Portrait 4: all papers and cardboard up to a grammage of 300 g/m² or 0.5 mm thickness, thin wood veneer (e.g. Decoflex), various self-adhesive and non-self-adhesive plastic films and much more.
Thanks to the material passage height of 2 mm, you can also use thicker materials - e.g. to draw motifs on foam rubber. And with the separately available power knife, you can even cut materials up to a thickness of 2 mm.
Please note that materials without a backing material or smaller pieces of material that are not caught by the roller transport must be applied to the cutting pad with the slightly adhesive surface (be sure to carry out preliminary tests with thin, sensitive materials!) This is not necessary for materials with a backing, such as self-adhesive films. The backing will wear out over time and you should replace it after a certain period of time: Silhouette Portrait cutting mat or Silhouette Portrait PixScan cutting mat. If you want to cut very thin materials, we recommend the optional electrostatic cutting mat, which is available separately.
