A stamp prints in reverse.
So the plate is cut the other way round
That is the fault that ruins an otherwise good file, and it looks perfectly right on screen until the box arrives. This gives you both files and says which is which — and it checks the rest of it too: the finest line, the narrowest gap, the smallest capital that will not fill in, and the type that has quietly grown into the border. Free, in full. No sign-up.
- Free, no account.
- Every shape, every face and both files are free from the first open — no sign-up, no seat, no watermark.
- Nothing is uploaded.
- The artwork is built in your browser and a logo you drop in never leaves it.
- Type as outlines.
- Every letter leaves as a filled path. No font to install at the other end, no die cut in the wrong face.
- Checked against the process.
- Rubber, photopolymer or laser — each has its own finest line, narrowest gap and smallest capital.
- The plate is mirrored.
- Both files, both labelled. A relief reverses, and a plate cut from the impression prints backwards.
- Millimetres throughout.
- Designed at the size it is used, and the PDF comes out at that size with nothing to scale.
What it does
Six things, and the last one is the one that saves the job
A stamp is a small object and the whole craft of it is at that size.
Five outlines
- Round, oval, oblong, polygon, triangle
- Thirteen stock sizes, or type your own
- Rounded corners on an oblong
- A polygon on a flat or on a point
Type on a curve
- Every letter turned to stand on the curve
- Feet inward at the top, outward at the foot
- Held to an arc, centred where you put it
- It follows an oval and an oblong, not just a circle
Rings and rules
- As many as you like, measured in from the edge
- Filled annuli, never strokes
- Broken rings drawn as real marks
- They stay concentric when the size changes
Your own logo
- An SVG dropped in and flattened to paths
- Fitted by height and centred on its own bounds
- Says what it could not use, rather than guessing
- Stars, dots and diamonds besides
What it can do
Everything the panel holds
The whole of it, so nothing has to be found by accident.
The blank
- Circle, ellipse, rectangle, polygon and triangle
- Thirteen stock sizes from 38 mm round to 70 × 30
- Rounded corners, and a polygon of three to twelve sides
- Turned to any angle
- Everything measured in from the edge, not out from the centre
Type
- Arc runs and straight lines, as many as you like
- Four faces, Latin and Cyrillic
- Cap height in millimetres, not point size
- Tracking, arc limit, and which way the feet point
- Every letter outlined — nothing leaves as text
Rings, marks and art
- Rings measured in from the edge, filled not stroked
- Broken rings drawn as real marks, fitted to close
- Stars of three to twelve points, dots and diamonds
- An SVG logo, flattened, fitted and centred
- It reports strokes and text it cannot use
Making it
- Rubber, photopolymer or laser, each with its own limits
- Line, gap and capital checked, with the figures shown
- Type crossing a ring, runs colliding, art off the edge
- Impression and plate, both labelled
- SVG and vector PDF in millimetres
How it works
Four steps
Pick the blank
A stock size or your own. Everything after is measured in from its edge.
Set the type
A run round the top, one round the foot, lines in the middle. Cap heights in millimetres.
Add the rest
Rings, a star at each side, a logo in the centre.
Check and take both files
The panel names the process; the plate comes out mirrored.
What it is for
Where a stamp is wanted by Friday
Company seals
The round seal with the name round the top and the registration round the foot.
Received and dated
An oblong with lines for a date, set at the size the mount takes.
Quality and inspection
Passed, rejected, batch marks — small stamps where the capital height is the whole question.
Notaries and offices
A star at each side, a crest in the middle, and rings that stay concentric at any diameter.
Makers and studios
Your own logo dropped in the middle of a round seal, flattened to paths on the way.
Platemakers
A file that arrives outlined, mirrored, in millimetres, and already checked against your minimums.
Questions
The ones worth answering
Why two files?
Because a stamp is a relief pressed onto paper, so the impression is the mirror of the plate. The impression is what you show a customer; the plate is what the die is cut from. They are both here, both labelled, and the panel shows whichever you ask for — because a plate cut from the impression prints backwards and looks perfectly right until it is made.
Why is the type outlined?
Because a text element is a request for a font, not a shape. Send one to a platemaker without the font and the die is cut in whatever they have installed. Everything here leaves as a filled path, which is also what lets the file be mirrored and checked.
What do the checks actually check?
The finest line, the narrowest gap and the smallest capital, against the process you name — rubber closes up finer than about a third of a millimetre, photopolymer holds about half that. It also finds type that has grown into a ring, two runs of type colliding, and artwork off the edge. Every figure is shown next to the limit it was judged against, because a good platemaker will hold finer than the table and you should be able to argue with it.
Why is a size a cap height and not a point size?
Because the process has an opinion about how tall the capitals are, not about an abstract em. Two faces at the same point size have capitals of different heights, so asking for 10 pt asks for nothing in particular. Ask for 2.5 mm capitals and you get 2.5 mm capitals in any face.
Can I use my own font?
Not yet — four faces ship with the tool, covering Latin and Cyrillic. A font somebody uploads brings a licensing question with it that a free tool should not answer casually, and that is the piece to think about rather than the reading of the file.
Can it read my logo?
If it is an SVG of shapes, yes: paths, rectangles, circles, ellipses and polygons, with their transforms flattened. Strokes and text are reported rather than converted — outlining a stroke is a real geometry problem and a wrong answer is a plate cut to the wrong shape, and it takes ten seconds in the program that drew it.
Design the stamp and take the plate
Pick the blank, set the type, check it against the process, and take both files.