Provo Craft partnered with HP to build the Imagine. The Cricut die cutting hardware is married to a HP tri-color print suite. HP printers have a reputation for being easy to use, affordable, and reliable, so this machine promises to turn out fantastic results.
Until now artists that specialize in paper creations had to spend lots of money to put together a cutting system that integrated project design, project printing, and design cutting. Before the Cricut Image came along artists had to buy a computer controlled cutter, design software, and invest in a computer. So it is easy to see why any paper die cutter that promises to save money, materials, and time gets lots of attention by crafters and artists.
Provo Craft tells us they packed a ton of helpful features into the Imagine, of course the most important is the ability to add imagery, dimension, and colors to projects at the touch of a few buttons. This will probably be a powerful selling feature for the Cricut Imagine. Right now paper artists are forced to keep reams of different color paper in stock just to get different color project elements. Being able to create projects on nothing but white paper is a huge advantage and money saver.
Trade show spies say the design theory behind this paper die cutter printer is practical and aimed at keeping existing Cricut customers loyal. The Imagine leans heavily toward being completely compatible with all current Cricut accessories you may already own. So all the Cricut artwork and element cartridges you already own will work fine with the Imagine. The cutting blade housing, the Gypsy design studio software, and Jukebox storage units are also fully compatible.
If you are not familiar with the Cricut line of products here is a quick recap. The Cricut Gypsy is a handheld portable design software studio which allows the user to mix and match art and texture elements from various cartridge themes into one unit. The Cricut Jukebox lets users connect up to six cartridges to a Cricut cutter at once. Normally only one cartridge can be used at a time and the user has to swap cartridges to get different art work.
Provo Craft could have easily "updated" the style of cartridges to a new design forcing existing customers to buy their favorite old artwork designs in a new package. In a classy move they made sure crafters with a huge library of expensive cartridges can use their investments on the Cricut Imagine. Provo Craft is going to launch a lot of new artwork for the Imagine. Plans are to have about 25 cartridges ready for the Imagine upon its release.
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