WHAT IS A CUSTOM CARDBOARD CUTOUT A custom cardboard cutout is anything you want it to be. A family member, a family pet, business promotional material and sometimes it is as simple as an ear of corn. A custom cutout is your photo directly printed to the material of your choice. Choose from cardboard, foamcore, or coroplast to fit your situations needs. Then let us worry about the rest. We will digitally make a personalized cut path file for your cutout and directly print it to your selected material. The final step is to precisely contour cut the shape of your image from the material to create the ultimate life-like and realistic cutout your eyes will ever see. Cutouts are resistant to minor scratches, abrasions, moisture, and minor spills. Even the sun is no match, our cutouts can endure the harsh effects of direct sunlight. This means your promotional material can withstand many different high traffic areas, such as store displays, movie theaters, a toddlers birthday party and so much more. Life Size Custom Cutouts has been the #1 national custom cardboard cutout provider for over 10 years with our lowest cutout prices on the web! Our pricing is based on the largest dimension of your finished custom cutout. For example a six foot long alligator would cost the same as a 6ft tall person. You can specify the exact height of your subject or make them as large or small as you want. We produce the most cost effective custom cutouts for your needs. Shop with us today! Need 100 or more cutouts for your next marketing campaign? Let us quote your next big job. AVAILABLE CUSTOM CUTOUT MATERIALS Cardboard The standard material cardboard is white washed on the front to ensure a true to color print. This material is also corrugated along the height for structural stability. Cardboard is our cheapest option providing a nice print and durability. Foamcore Foamcore lacks the corrugation of the cardboard instead its center is filled with foam. This removes the ripple effect of the corrugation in the cardboard. Foamcore offers the nicest looking print but is very easily damaged. Foamcore is great for exhibits behind glass or somewhere out of reach. Coroplast Coroplast is our strongest material standing for corrugated plastic. Coroplast is waterproof and generally used out doors, or when a custom cutout is being posed with or handled frequently. Coroplast is strong and durable providing years of use. While being the strongest the corrugation can be seen through the print. CUSTOM CUTOUT SPEECH BUBBLES Make your life size custom cutout even more informative or hilarious with a custom speech bubble with any phrase you choose. Our cardboard Speech Bubbles come in 3 varieties, Blank Speech Bubbles, "Your Text" Speech Bubbles and Dry Erase Speech Bubbles. Blank Speech Bubble - $20 "Your Text" Speech Bubble - $30 Dry-Erase Speech Bubble - $35 Cutout with a Speech Bubble MINIMUM RESOLUTION FOR A CUSTOM CARDBOARD CUTOUT A custom cardboard cutouts resolution or DPI is a reference to how many pixels make up one inch of the photo. The higher the resolution or DPI the cleaner your custom cardboard cutout will be. Low resolution images may appear to be blurry pixelated or even mosaic like. To avoid any of these problems be sure your camera is set to the highest resolution possible. The recommended minimum DPI is 200 for a custom cardboard cutout with a file size if 2mb or larger. Photos printed or developed by a commercial printer or a sublimation photo printer are of of the best options for your custom cardboard cutout. Photos printed on a non-commercial printer or home printer will show dots when enlarged. TAKING THE BEST CUSTOM CARDBOARD CUTOUT PHOTO When taking a photograph with a digital camera, always put it to the highest settings. For the best custom cutout image possible follow these photo taking tips. For resolution and camera settings please refer to your cameras user manual. Check your camera resolution settings. - Be sure you cameras resolution or DPI is set to the highest possible. Cameras by default lower this quality to allow for more pictures to be taken. When taking your custom cutout photo be sure this setting is turned all the way up. Take it vertically, not horizontally. - Taking your photo vertically ensures the most pixels are available when making your custom cardboard cutout. Try not to zoom, just step closer. - Digitally zooming on many camera's lowers resolution and the final quality of the cutout. When taking your custom cardboard cutout picture step closer to the subject instead of zooming. Fill as much of the view finder with the subject as possible. Do not cut the feet or arms off. - Just a suggestion. But here at Life Size Custom Cutouts we know not every picture is scripted. Have a picture that is lacking limbs or a body? Let our photoshop wizards work their magic by selecting the photo and artwork modification option during your product creation. Light backgrounds are better. - Lighter background ensure a contour cut true to shape. Contrasting backgrounds are recommended. Sharp, focused, and clear images work the best. Negatives or slides are not currently accepted. SCANNING A PHOTO Scanned photos should be at least 200dpi to be enlarged. For the best quality use the highest dpi setting available to your scanner. The higher the resolution the clearer the final product will look. When scanning an image for your custom cutout make sure the entire subject is in the scanners window. While scanning the image be sure to keep the lid closed and do not move the scanner or image. USING A LOW RESOLUTION PHOTO Custom cardboard cutouts have no limits! Use your favorite image to create a contour cut custom cardboard cutout. Here at Life Size Custom Cutouts we know that sometimes you can't go back in time and take a high resolution photo; AND THATS OK! Old wedding photos and the like are more than welcome and our kind staff will show you a quality proof before printing and shipping your order. LOW RESOLUTION OPTIONS With over 30+ years of experience in the cutout industry we want every customer 100% satisfied. After printing many blurry life size cutouts upon request we spent the last years researching new alternatives. Introducing the Shelf Buddy! Shelf buddies are 8" or 12" custom acrylic cutouts made directly from your photo. Acrylic cutouts make great memento's and creative thoughtful gifts. Worried your only photo is not going to work? Check out our custom acrylic cutout option. CARDBOARD CUTOUT SETUP TUTORIAL QUICK AND EASY ASSEMBLY Over our 35 years of business we have strived to bring you the sturdiest easels on the web and we have done it. No more flimsy cutouts that fall over when you look at them. Follow along with Scott in the tutorial above to get your cutout upright and standing in a few simple steps.
