REVIEW – I’ve reviewed quite a few photo printers over the years with the ability to print photo stickers. But none of those photo printers would let you design and print your own stickers and then cut them out of the sticker sheet in the shape of the artwork. The Liene PixCut S1 can do that. Let’s take a closer look.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $299.00
Where to buy: Liene and Amazon
What is it?
The Liene PixCut S1 is a photo and sticker printer that prints 4-layer laminated stickers that are waterproof, UV resistant, and scratch resistant.
What’s included?
- Liene PixCut S1 printer
- Paper cassette
- Photo paper (18 sheets), Sticker paper (18 sheets)
- Ink cartridge
- Blade
- Power adapter
- Manual
Tech Specs
Dimensions (W X D X H) – 281x196x104.5mm
Weight – 2.9kg (6.4lbs)
Printing Technology – 4 Layering Technology(Dye Sublimation Thermal Transfer: D2T2)
Resolution – 300 x 300 DPI
Gradation – 256 shades per color
Sticker Paper Size – 4 x 7 inches (101.6 x 177.8mm)
Sticker Paper Printing Size – 3.9 x 6.7inches (100 x 170mm)
Photo Paper Size – 4 x 6 inches (101.6 x 177.8mm)
Photo Paper Printing Size – 3.94 x 5.83 inches (100 x 148mm)
Supporting File – JPEG, PNG, HEIC
Printing Speed – 59 sec
Cutting Speed Single Axis: 2ips max
Blade – Premium Fine-Point Blade + Housing
Cemented Carbide, Angle 45°, Tip Diameter 1.0mm
Media Capacity Paper cassette – 36 sheets
Media Capacity Ribbon cartridge 4 x 7 36 sheets
Connectivity – Bluetooth 5.0
Connectivity USB Memory – No
Connectivity Digital Camera (PictBridge) – No
Power Adaptor – Input:100-240V – 50/60Hz 1.0A
Output: 24.0V—1.6A 38.4W
Battery N/A
Power Consumption – 60W (printing max)/1.2W(sleep mode)
Smartphone OS Support Android √,Android 4.1 and above
Smartphone OS Support iOS √, iOS 9.0 and above
Smartphone OS Support Windows X
Major App Functions Based on APP
Operation Temperature – 10℃-35℃
Design and features
I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review that I’ve reviewed several other photo prints over the years. The Liene PixCut S1 is not like those printers. Those printers were portable like the Polaroid Hi-Print, which was my favorite until it recently stopped working. The PixCut isn’t very portable. Sure, you can take it from place to place, but I don’t think anyone is going to take this printer on vacation with them.
The PixCut S1 has a plastic case with a power button on one side with an LED status indicator around it.
The opposite side has a slot for the ink cartridge and connections for USB-C and power. Once desktop software becomes available, the USB-C port will be used for PC connectivity. If you’re wondering if this printer has a battery, it does not. You’ll need to use the power adapter whenever you want to print pictures and stickers.
The bottom of the printer has a door that covers an open slot. The manual does not mention what this is used for.
The door on the side flips open to reveal the ink cartridge slot.
The Liene PixCut S1 printer comes with one ink cartridge. It’s not really an ink cartridge though.
The Liene PixCut S1 uses a special dye-sublimation ink cartridge that isn’t filled with liquid ink like you’d find in a regular inkjet printer. Instead, the cartridge is a solid ribbon containing three colors-cyan, magenta, and yellow-plus a clear protective layer. During printing, the printer uses heat to transfer these dyes from the ribbon onto the paper in layers to create the photos or stickers and then laminates the print/sticker with a clear layer that protects it from water, fading, and scratches. Since there’s no liquid involved, the cartridges are cleaner, easier to replace, and help keep the printer’s insides mess-free.
A door covers one end of the printer that houses the paper cassette.
The cassette is stored in a slot at the top when not printing.
The plastic cassette lifts open so that you can easily load photo or sticker paper. Included with the PixCut S1 is a pack of 18 sheets of 4×7 in sticker paper and another 18 sheet pack of 4×6 in photo paper. You can buy refills directly from Liene or Amazon. A refill of 72 sheets of sticker paper with 2 ink cartridges is $42.99 and a pack of 72 sheets of photo paper and 2 ink cartridges is $33.99.
When you’re ready to print, the cassette inserts into the bottom slot, as shown in the photo above.
The opposite end has a magnetic cover that protects the cutter mechanism.
The PixCut S1 uses a high-precision, automatic cutter with tiny blade that is built into the printer, so you don’t have to swap machines or mess with manual settings. After your photo or sticker is printed, the machine uses a super-fine 0.1mm blade to “kiss cut” your design, meaning it slices cleanly through the sticker layer without cutting all the way through the backing paper.
Liene software
At the time of this review, the only software that you can use with the PixCut S1 is the mobile app for iOS and Android. At some point, I think there will be a Windows and Mac app, but that’s just a guess based on the manual, where is mentions the USB-C port on the side of the printer.
The software provides ready-to-use labels, sticker pages, and more. But for my first test of the PixCut S1, I decided to create my own sticker using Canva.
I love Canva. I use it for thumbnails for my YouTube videos, and I’ve even used it for some review images. So, to commemorate a journal club meeting, I designed a sticker and created a sheet of them to print and share at the club meeting. I downloaded the image as a JPG from Canva and then imported it into the Liene software.
Once in the Liene software, I arranged copies of the stickers on the sheet. The Preview option allows you to see how much space you need between each sticker to allow for the cutting. Once I had everything arranged, I printed my first sheet of stickers.
Let’s print stickers with the Liene PixCut S1!
The printer will print in yellow first, and then will pull the paper back into the printer to print the next color, and will pull it back again for magenta.
Next, it prints a layer of cyan. Each time the print spits back out, you see the next layer of color.
The final layer of color is cyan, followed by a clear protective layer. Then if you chose to cut the stickers, it will pull the sheet back in again to perform the cutting.
And here is the finished sheet. You can see that I got two of the stickers just a bit too close and the cuts caused some slivers of paper to curl up. Not a big deal though…
You can even print your own phone skins! See you later DBrand 😉 Seriously though, the Liene app has templates for iPhones, Samsung phones, Motorola, Google, and more. You can choose from a small set of patterns and colors, or you can just create your own and upload it to the app just like I did with the stickers above.
The quality of the sticker prints is crisp, clear, and vibrant. They totally exceeded my expectations.
What about photo print quality? Let’s find out.
4×6″ Photo prints are glossy and awesome. You can print a full picture or do your own thing with a collage. It’s completely up to you. Want to make your own action figure picture image? I wrote a step-by-step article about it that you can find here:
Check out the video below where I show how to print photos and stickers with the Liene PixCut S1.
See it in action
Final thoughts
This printer is great. I have yet to run into any issues. The app is easy to use (I still want a desktop app) and the printer prints fantastic stickers and photos. The ability to cut out the stickers based on shape is awesome. I am looking forward to using the Liene PixCut S1 for years to come. I guess I’d better go order more sticker paper!
What I like about the Liene PixCut S1 sticker and photo printer
- Easy to use software
- Can be used for stickers or photos or even photo stickers 🙂
- Cuts out any sticker shape
- Make your own phone skins
What needs to be improved?
- Desktop software would be great
- It would be nice to include a sheet holder/container. Since it can print photos and stickers, once you open the packs, it would be nice to have something to hold them in
Price: $299.00
Where to buy: Liene and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Liene. They did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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That’s pretty good! I’ve been in the photocopier technical side for over 40 years. In our business, CYM, “toner” based copiers typically produce a dark muddy brown, which is one of the reasons they add K (black) to make up for it.
Dye Sublimation though usually does a pretty good job producing CYM black.
Yes this printer and others like it with dye sublimation do a very good job creating all colors with the layering tech.