CutContour in GIMP: The Honest Answer

GIMP is a great free image editor, but it cannot create the CutContour cut line that Roland VersaWorks needs. GIMP has no spot color support at all, and no way to export a vector path in a named separation. If you design in GIMP, you need another tool for the cut line. Here are your options, from most work to least.

Why GIMP Cannot Do It

A VersaWorks cut file needs a vector path stroked in a spot color named exactly CutContour, saved as a /Separation color space inside a PDF. GIMP is missing every link in that chain:

The Free Workaround: GIMP Plus Inkscape or Scribus

If you want to stay fully free and open source, the path looks like this: finish your artwork in GIMP and export a transparent PNG. Open Inkscape, import the PNG, and use Trace Bitmap to build an outline path, then Path then Outset to add the border offset. Inkscape itself cannot save true spot colors to PDF, so the file then goes to Scribus, where you import the artwork and path, define a spot color named exactly CutContour, apply it to the path stroke, and export a PDF with spot colors enabled.

It genuinely works, and it costs nothing. It is also three programs, a dozen fragile steps, and easily 30 minutes the first several times. One naming typo or one export checkbox and VersaWorks ignores the cut line.

The Fast Route: Keep GIMP for Design, Automate the Cut Line

CutContour handles everything after the design stage. Export a PNG from GIMP (transparent background is ideal, but a white background is fine with the Remove White Background toggle), upload it, set the sticker size and offset, and download a VersaWorks-ready PDF in about 10 seconds.

The vector tracing, the offset, the CutContour separation, and the full-quality artwork embed all happen automatically. You can also batch up to 20 designs into one ZIP, which fits nicely with a GIMP workflow where you export a whole folder of PNGs in one sitting.