Size is the setting people change first and think about least. It decides how many biscuits you get, how long the print takes, and whether the fine detail in your design can be printed at all.
The usual sizes
| Size | Millimetres | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Mini | 25 to 50 mm | Decorations, cupcake toppers, mixed platters |
| Small | 50 to 75 mm | Party biscuits, kids' sets, biscuits for a bag |
| Standard | 75 to 100 mm | The default for decorated biscuits |
| Large | 100 to 130 mm | Centrepiece biscuits, gift biscuits, cake toppers |
Most decorated biscuits sold as a set are 75 to 100 mm. If you are unsure, 75 mm is a good default and is what the tool starts at.
Size in the tool is the cookie, not the tool
The size you set is the size of the biscuit. The base flange, the flat part you press with, sits outside that and adds its own width all the way around.
At the default 4 mm flange, a 75 mm cutter is about 83 mm across the outside. Worth knowing if you are fitting several onto one print plate or into a box.
How many biscuits per batch
Rough guide for a standard batch of rolled biscuit dough, about 500 g of dough rolled to 5 mm:
| Cutter size | Biscuits per batch |
|---|---|
| 50 mm | About 40 |
| 75 mm | About 20 |
| 100 mm | About 12 |
| 130 mm | About 7 |
Re rolling scraps changes this and makes the last few tougher.
Size decides what detail survives
This is the part that catches people out. Detail does not scale for free.
A 0.4 mm nozzle can lay down a line about 0.8 mm wide at minimum. If your design has a line that is 1 percent of its width, then at 75 mm that line is 0.75 mm and cannot be printed. At 150 mm the same line is 1.5 mm and prints fine.
So a design that fails at 75 mm is often not a bad design, it is the wrong size for that design. The tool measures the thinnest line in your artwork and tells you both the measured width and the size that would fix it, before you print.
Three ways out when a design is too fine:
- Print it bigger, at whatever size the warning suggests
- Use a heavier design, a bolder font or a thicker stroke
- Turn up stroke thickening in the tool, which fattens thin lines rather than dropping them
Practical limits
- Under 40 mm the layers print so fast the plastic has not set before the next one lands. Raise the minimum layer time or the blade will slump.
- Over about 120 mm you are printing a lot of blade, and any bed adhesion problem has a lot of leverage. Use a brim.
- Check your printer's bed size against the outside dimension, not the cookie size.