How to Make a Stencil in Procreate, Photoshop or Inkscape

You can make a stencil in Procreate, Photoshop or Inkscape by turning your image into bold black and white shapes, then adding bridges so enclosed pieces don't fall out. Photoshop's Threshold tool and Inkscape's Trace Bitmap do the black and white part for you; in Procreate you mostly trace by hand. None of the three adds bridges or splits layers automatically, so that part is always manual.

Below are honest steps for each app, the gaps you'll hit, and the shortcut I built to fill them.

What every stencil needs, whatever the app

Before the app-specific steps, here's what you're aiming for. A cut-ready stencil has:

• Solid shapes only. Pure black (cut) and pure white (keep). No greys, no soft edges.
• Bridges. An island is an enclosed shape, like the middle of an "O", that would fall out when cut. A bridge is a thin strip connecting it back to the rest of the sheet.
• One sheet per paint shade on a multi-layer stencil, with registration marks (small alignment shapes in the same spot on every sheet) so the layers line up.
• The right file. A printout for hand-cutting, or a vector file (SVG or DXF) for a cutting machine or laser.

How to make a stencil in Procreate

Procreate is great for drawing a stencil from scratch on an iPad. It doesn't have a threshold tool, and it can't export vector files, so treat it as a drawing tool rather than a converter.

1. Import your photo. Tap Actions (the spanner icon), then Add, then Insert a photo.
2. Turn it black and white. Tap Adjustments, then Hue, Saturation, Brightness, and drag Saturation all the way down.
3. Push the contrast. Tap Adjustments, then Curves, and drag the curve into a steep S shape so the darks go black and the lights go white. This gets you close, but rarely clean enough to cut.
4. Trace it on a new layer. Lower the photo layer's opacity, add a new layer on top, and draw the stencil shapes with a hard brush (a monoline or inking brush works well). Fill closed shapes by dragging the color disc from the top right into them (ColorDrop).
5. Draw bridges. On the same layer, use a white or eraser brush to break any enclosed shapes. Keep them at least 2mm wide at print size.
6. For more than one layer, draw each paint shade on its own Procreate layer, and add a small cross in the same corner of every layer for registration.
7. Export. Tap Actions, then Share, then PNG or PDF. Hide all layers but one before exporting if you want separate sheets.

Where it falls short: hand tracing takes a while, and the PNG or PDF has to be traced again in other software if you want to use a cutting machine. If you're on a phone or tablet and want the photo converted for you, my make stencils on your phone tutorial shows the quicker route.

How to make a stencil in Photoshop

Photoshop is the best of the three for converting a photo, because it has a proper threshold control.

1. Open your photo and crop it to the area you want.
2. Convert to greyscale. Image, then Mode, then Grayscale.
3. Smooth the detail. Filter, then Noise, then Median, with a small radius (start around 2 to 4 pixels). This rounds off tiny specks that would be impossible to cut.
4. Apply Threshold. Image, then Adjustments, then Threshold. Drag the slider until the face or object reads clearly in pure black and white. This is your single-layer stencil.
5. For a multi-layer stencil, use Posterize instead. Image, then Adjustments, then Posterize, and set Levels to 3 for a three-tone stencil. Then use Select, then Color Range to pick each tone and copy it onto its own layer.
6. Draw bridges. Pick a hard round brush in white. Click at one end of where the bridge should go, hold Shift and click at the other end; Photoshop draws a straight line between the two.
7. Add registration marks in the same position on every layer.
8. Export. File, then Export, then Export As, and save each layer as a PNG, or save the whole thing as a PDF for printing.

Where it falls short: Photoshop works in pixels, so it won't give you a clean vector file for a Cricut or laser. You'd need to trace the PNG in Illustrator or Inkscape afterwards. Finding every island by eye also takes patience on a detailed photo.

How to make a stencil in Inkscape

Inkscape is free, works on Windows, Mac and Linux, and is the only one of the three that turns a photo straight into a vector stencil.

1. Import the photo. File, then Import, and choose Embed.
2. Select it and open Trace Bitmap. Path, then Trace Bitmap (shortcut Shift+Alt+B).
3. For a single-layer stencil, choose Single scan, then Brightness cutoff, and adjust the Threshold value. The preview shows the result.
4. For a multi-layer stencil, choose Multiple scans, then Brightness steps, and set Scans to the number of layers you want. Tick Stack scans if you want each layer to sit on top of the one below rather than as separate bands.
5. Clean it up. In the options, tick Speckles and raise its size to remove tiny dots, and increase Smooth corners for softer curves. Click Apply.
6. Delete the original photo. Drag the traced result aside, click the photo underneath and delete it.
7. Add bridges. Draw a thin rectangle across each island, select both the rectangle and the shape, then Path, then Difference. That cuts a gap through the shape.
8. Save it. File, then Save As, and choose Inkscape SVG or Plain SVG. For a DXF, choose Desktop Cutting Plotter (AutoCAD DXF R14).

Where it falls short: the trace is often lumpy around faces, multiple scans can leave hundreds of tiny paths to tidy up, and bridges are a manual Path, Difference job for every single island. I wrote a fuller comparison on Free Stencil Maker vs Inkscape if you want the detail.

Which app should you use?

If you love drawing, Procreate is a joy. If you already pay for Photoshop and want control, it'll do the job. If you need a free vector file, use Inkscape.

The shortcut: let the islands and layers sort themselves out

The slow bit in all three apps is the same: finding every island, drawing every bridge by hand, and lining the layers up. That's the part I built Free Stencil Maker to handle.

You upload a photo or drawing in the browser (phone, tablet or computer), pick 1 to 6 layers, and it splits the image into one sheet per paint shade, adds bridges automatically and adds registration marks. You can then adjust detail per layer, draw extra bridges by hand, and test-spray it on a virtual wall before you cut anything. Free downloads are PDF and PNG with up to 3 layers. For more layers, or a cutting-machine file, the SVG stencil maker exports SVG and DXF with Pro or a one-off project unlock.

If you've drawn something in Procreate, you can export it as a PNG and upload it, so the two work nicely together. For more on layers, read how to make a multi-layer stencil.

FAQ

Can Procreate make an SVG for a Cricut?

No. Procreate exports raster files (PNG, JPEG, PSD, PDF), not true vector SVGs. Export a PNG, then convert it with a tool that outputs SVG.

What is the best Threshold setting in Photoshop for a stencil?

There isn't one number; it depends on the photo's lighting. Slide it until the main features (eyes, nose, mouth on a portrait) are readable and the background is clean, then smooth small specks with the Median filter.

Is Inkscape good for making stencils?

Yes, especially for free vector files. Trace Bitmap does the conversion well on simple, high-contrast images. On busy photos you'll spend longer cleaning paths and adding bridges by hand.

Do I need bridges if I'm using a cutting machine?

Yes. A machine cuts out every enclosed shape just as a knife would, so islands still fall out unless they're bridged.

Want to skip the manual bridging? Upload your image to Free Stencil Maker and have the layers, bridges and registration marks done before you open your cutting software.