Home > Categories > Computer Hardware > Printers/Plotters > Roland Stika SX-15 review
Cutting-Edge Vinyl Graphics for Store, Office, School or Home.
STIKA's SX series of vinyl cutters offer the quality, durability and versatility necessary to meet the needs of everyone from the first-time user to the seasoned professional. And, with Dr. STIKA PLUS and Roland CutChoice ™ software, designing adhesive vinyl letters, decals, P.O.P. displays and signage has never been easier! For cutting-edge graphics - right from your desktop computer - look no further than STIKA.
Signage Made Simple
1 - Design your graphic on your computer using the software package included with the machine.
2 - Select "Print" from the File menu. STIKA cuts out your design.
3 - Peel away the excess vinyl.
4 - Apply the graphic.
STIKA Does It All
Signs, displays and labels play an important role in our everyday lives. Whether you need storefront signage, vehicle decals or labels for your store, office, school or home. The new, versatile STIKA SX-15 cuts both 305 mm- (12") and 381mm-wide (15") vinyl more than two and one half times faster than the SX-8 or SX-12! Whatever you need, in whatever format you want, STIKA says it all!
Exciting Graphics Right Out of the Box!
With Dr. STIKA PLUS and Roland CutChoice ™ software, even first-time users can create attractive, professional-looking signs and graphics.
Dr. STIKA PLUS*
Create beautifully contoured graphics using TrueType fonts, as well as outline illustrations imported from TWAIN-compatible scanners or as BMP files. You can even make larger graphics by cutting two halves separately.
Roland CutChoice ™**
Using Roland CutChoice you can preview multi-colored designs created in Adobe ® Illustrator ® or CorelDraw ® then create overlays by selecting individual colors for cutting.
**Compatible with Adobe Illustrator ver. 8.0/9.0 or CorelDraw 8.0/9.0/10.0 on Windows ® 98/Me/2000, and Adobe Illustrator ver. 8.0/9.0 on Mac OS 8.6-9x with optional USB parallel conversion cable.
Product reviews...
I was a little hesitant to try this unit, as it was purchased 2nd hand and had been running for quite a while, and at first glance it looked as though the previous owner hadn't taken very good care of it. No dust-tracks, but it had spiderwebs inside it! Also, attaching to the PC via the Parallel Printer port, I was frankly dubious about it's effectiveness.
After a reasonably basic installation (2 CDs, one for drivers, one for software, then a further update downloaded from the Roland website) I realised the toughest bit was getting the cables to reach! It was easy to set up, the software was relatively easy to handle, all good, thought I.
Then I started to explore the software, Dr. Stika Plus. To be honest, I was more than a little dissapointed with the range of abilities of this package. Being used to a high-end commercial unit, with SERIOUS software capable of importing Illustrator files (file.ai) and using those directly as cutting paths, it was quite a shock to find that unless the design was created within the Dr Stika application itself, it had to be imported as a BMP bitmap image, which the app converted to cutting paths. The accuracy was high, but not all that spectacular at all! Simple shapes such as letters were often 'pathed' incorrectly, showing a high level of errors and off-kilter angles.
At the end of the test runs, I had about 90% of what I expected. The unit's inability to cut the thicker vinyls was an issue I think should be addressed, as well as an updated version of the software that takes itself, and the user's needs, far more seriously. However, as a small home/hobby unit, this is a great investment, and will prove to be extremely handy for all those custom-cut vinyl needs. Make signs and stickers for your car, business, friends and family, make iron-on T-shirt designs and colour-fast gifts, etc.
Just make sure you read the manual COMPLETELY, otherwise you will end up getting lost and not utilising this unit to it's fullest potential.
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