The method. No hidden weight for “our product”.
Any ranking with its own tool on top looks like a doorway. To not be one, you have to be able to redo the score on paper. Weights, sources, and what we refuse to measure.
Updated 1 September 2026. NestPrintCut editorial — the team that builds RolCut. Scores follow the public method. We do not run a 200-roll lab we have not run.
Persona from the brief: a 2–30 person shop, a cutter, a RIP or Corel, weekly nests. Not a student, not a Cricut, not steel CAM. Criteria are weighted for that persona. The second board — prepress — moves weight onto automation.
Eight criteria
| Criterion | Weight | What we count |
|---|---|---|
| Roll-native nesting | 18 | Media width as first dimension, length as output, waste in metres |
| True-shape | 15 | Pack on contour / alpha, not only a bounding box. A JPEG or PDF-in with no alpha is a rectangle |
| Cutter-ready output | 18 | print.pdf + spotted cut.pdf + DXF + marks. Not “800 small-plotter drivers” |
| 3-year TCO | 15 | Public price × 3 + deployment. Quotes (Griffin) take the high end, not the low |
| RIP independence | 10 | Does the nest sit in front of any RIP, or need Onyx / Caldera / Corel |
| Time to first nest | 10 | An account and a recipe vs a Windows server, a dongle, training |
| Shop recipes | 8 | SKU presets (wrap, rail, face border, stretcher, spot, code). Hot folders live here, not in “AI magic” |
| print.pdf colour space | 6 | Can the nest emit DeviceRGB (passthrough) or DeviceCMYK with a named press ICC (FOGRA51, FOGRA39…). Not RIP colour quality, not the machine profile |
What we refuse to measure
- RIP colour quality and the machine / paper profile — that is the RIP. We only count whether the nest itself can emit RGB or a named ICC.
- Cricut / Cameo driver counts.
- Industry awards and PR quotes.
- Brochure “up to 50% media” without your roll.
- A hidden weight for “our product”. RolCut gets 15 on TCO because €499/year is public. PrimeCenter gets 4 because €2,495/year is also public.
Two boards
Shop board = the weights above. Prepress board = roll + shape + cut + rip + recipes×1.5 + time×0.4 + color. Colour is 1:1, not ×1.5 — an ICC picker is not a hot folder. That is why PrimeCenter can win the second and lose the first. If your shop is a prepress desk, read the second.
Change on 31 August 2026
An eighth criterion landed: print.pdf colour space, weight 6. Shops got an ICC picker on the nest recipe. We stopped writing that colour is RIP-only. We took 2 off roll, 2 off cut and 2 off recipes so the sum stays 100. PrimeCenter gets 6/6 here (prep with ICC). RolCut 5/6 — LittleCMS into FOGRA51 / FOGRA39 / GRACoL / SWOP, not a RIP and not a machine profile. TruFit 3, because colour sits in Onyx. Nest&Cut 0.
Change on 1 September 2026
RolCut copy: PDF-in is a first-page raster (TrimBox), not a native gang and not true-shape. Shop recipes are Canvas / Poster / Paper SKUs (wrap, rail, face border, stretcher, 180 dpi). Scores stay put — this is a product correction, not an eighth criterion. PrimeCenter still wins native PDF prep.
Sources
Prices: caldera.com/primecenter-pricing (Essentials / Pro / Max, 2026), Onyx TruFit resellers (~$1,995), Fiery Prep-it (~$3,000), EasyCut Studio, eCut, Nest&Cut. Griffin: Signs101 and reseller ranges, not a made-up figure. Dates sit on the reviews. Corrections: redakcja@nestprintcut.com.
Questions on the method
Why is TCO 15 and true-shape 15?
Because for the shop persona the invoice and the waste are the same account. Griffin’s engine is better — and it has 15/15 on shape. It does not win the sum, because the licence eats TCO.
Will you change the weights if RolCut drops?
No. The weights live in this file and on this page. A weight change needs a date and a sentence of why. Otherwise it is a doorway.
Why doesn’t RolCut get 6/6 on ICC if it is your feature?
Because PrimeCenter is prep with full ICC and gets the max. RolCut runs LittleCMS into a named press profile — not a RIP, not a machine profile. 5/6 is honest. Giving ourselves 6 and PrimeCenter 4 would be a doorway.