Free stencil maker with automatic bridges
Make a stencil from any design, free and in your browser, with nothing uploaded unless you choose the optional Cloud mode, which has an AI service simplify one photo first. Cut one straight from a design and the middle of every O, A, B, D and R drops out. Makerfern finds each island and connects it to the sheet with the shortest possible bridge.
Updated : A one-colour or fully transparent picture now gets a note above the preview saying why nothing was traced and what to try. What's new
Stays on this computer unless you choose Cloud · no signup · no watermark
No photo chosen
I understand that this photo is sent to Makerfern's server and to Cloudflare Workers AI (Cloudflare, Inc., USA) to be redrawn. Makerfern does not keep the photo or the result, and Cloudflare says it does not train on content processed by Workers AI. I will only use photos I have the right to use, and of people who are fine with it. I am 18 or older.
Faster with the free Chrome extension: right-click any picture on a website and send it straight to the converter. Add to Chrome · what it does
Extension installed. Right-click any picture on a website and choose Makerfern → Open this picture in… to bring it here.
Carving a pumpkin? Halloween stencil tips
What this preset does
These are the starting values when you open this page. They are Makerfern's defaults, chosen to be sensible for the job, not a manufacturer specification. Every one is adjustable in the settings panel.
| Setting | Starts at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge width | 2 mm | Wide enough to survive handling on mylar or vinyl at sign sizes. Increase it for spray paint and large stencils. |
| Width | 6 in | The width of the artwork itself: the sheet is cropped to what is cut, plus a 0.125 in margin. Bridges and the piece limit are measured at this size. |
| Smallest piece | 2 mm | Tiny cut-outs clog with paint and tear the sheet. |
| Thin warning | 1.5 mm | Thin strips, necks and long slender spikes in the cut are marked in red. The short sharp ends of ears, tails and wing tips are normal on a stencil and get a quiet grey outline instead. |
Cutting and using the stencil
- Drop the design and check the preview: every bridge is outlined, so you can see where it went.
- If a bridge crosses an important detail, increase the width or simplify the design and convert again.
- Download the SVG and cut it from stencil film, freezer paper or adhesive vinyl.
- To cut by hand, download the print-ready PDF (Letter or A4): the stencil at true size, centred, with a check square so you can confirm it printed at 100%.
How the bridges are placed
The stencil sheet is the part you keep, and the design is what you cut away. Any piece of sheet completely surrounded by the design is an island and will fall out. For each one, Makerfern finds the narrowest crossing through the cut-away area to the rest of the sheet, and leaves one straight strip of sheet across it at your chosen width. It repeats until nothing is left floating, largest islands first, so one bridge can serve several nested shapes.
The shortest path is usually the least visible one, but not always the prettiest. Read the stencil bridges guide for when to move a bridge by hand in your design software.
A sound SVG is only the first step. If paint creeps beneath the cut edge on wood or canvas, use the vinyl stencil paint-bleed checklist to check surface contact, transfer tape and paint load.
How a colour design becomes one stencil
A stencil has one colour: the holes. So Makerfern splits a multi-colour design by darkness. The darker inks are cut out and the lighter ones stay as sheet, which keeps a face's eyes and smile, a flower's outline and the letters of a badge as openings instead of cutting one solid silhouette. The split point is chosen automatically from the design's own light and dark; move Darkness cut-off to change it, or switch to Light parts to cut the light areas instead.
Stencil fonts
If you are stenciling text and you have the choice, a stencil typeface already has its bridges designed in. Makerfern is for everything else: logos, drawings and lettering that wasn't made with a stencil in mind.
Cloud AI simplify (optional)
A photo is a hard start for a stencil: shading and texture can turn into one large black shape. Cloud AI simplify has an AI model redraw the photo as a bold black-and-white picture first; the stencil is then cut from that picture here, with the same bridges and minimum sizes. The result is a redrawing, so it can change a face or invent a detail. Your photo is sent to a service only when you pick it and press its button; 3 free pages per visitor in all (shared with the other Cloud tools), then On this device carries on without limit.
Questions
What happens to a design with no islands?
Nothing is added. The report shows 0 bridges.
Is the width I type the width of the stencil?
It is the width of the artwork, the cut shapes themselves. The sheet is cropped to them with an even 0.125 in margin, so a cat set to 3.5 in is 3.5 in wide, and the report states the artwork size and the sheet size.
Can I print the stencil to cut it by hand?
Yes. Print-ready PDF makes a Letter or A4 page with the stencil at true size, centred, and a 1 in (A4: 25 mm) square to measure. Print it at 100%, never "fit to page". A stencil bigger than one page is tiled across pages with a 0.3 in overlap.
Can I stencil a photo?
Yes, as a single-color stencil. It works best with a high-contrast photo. Expect many islands, and raise Smallest piece to keep the bridge count reasonable. A photo can turn into one big black shape, and the optional Cloud AI simplify redraws it as a bold black-and-white picture first (the question below says what it sends).
What is Cloud AI simplify, and what does it send?
Cloud AI simplify is an optional second way to start. It is off by default and starts only when you choose it, tick the consent box and press the button. Then your browser makes a smaller copy of the photo with the camera data (such as the location) removed and sends it to our server, which passes it to Cloudflare, Inc. (USA); an AI model (FLUX.2 klein, run by Cloudflare Workers AI) redraws it as a bold black-and-white picture, and this page then cuts the stencil from that picture on your device, with the same bridges, minimum sizes and cut file as ever. Because the AI redraws the photo, faces and small details can change, so it is not the choice when a likeness matters. We do not keep the photo or the result, and Cloudflare says it does not train on content processed by Workers AI. You get 3 free Cloud pages in all, shared with the other Cloud tools here; On this device stays unlimited. It is for people 18 or older, for photos you have the right to use and of people who are fine with it. See the privacy policy.
Can I sell what I make with it?
Yes. Everything Makerfern makes is yours to use and sell, free or Pro, as long as you have the right to use what you start from: your own photos and drawings, or pictures whose license allows it; somebody else's art or characters only with their permission. Makerfern adds no watermark and takes no rights in your file. One Pro covers every tool: there is no per-tool plan.