How to make a pumpkin stencil
- Pick a starting point. Choose one of the ready-made designs, upload a photo, or type a name or a word. Photos are processed in your browser and never leave your device.
- Set the tones. With 2 tones every part is either cut out or kept. With 3 tones the middle shades become shaved areas that glow a dimmer orange, which is what makes photo stencils look like a picture instead of a silhouette. Move Threshold until the important features read clearly.
- Check the carving. The tool finds pieces of pumpkin that would fall out because cut-outs surround them, and adds bridges to hold them in place. Switch the preview to Lit pumpkin to see roughly how it will look with a candle inside.
- Size it and print. Pick your pumpkin's size and your paper, download the PDF and print it at 100%. A stencil larger than one sheet is split across pages that you tape together.
Reading the stencil
| On the stencil | What to do | How it looks lit |
|---|---|---|
| Black | Cut all the way through the wall | Brightest, the candle shows through |
| Gray | Shave off the skin and a thin layer of flesh, without cutting through | A soft orange glow |
| White | Leave the skin on | Dark |
| Green (preview only) | A bridge: leave it, it holds a piece in place | Dark |
Shaving works best on a pumpkin with thick walls. Scrape the inside of the wall down to about an inch thick first, so the shaved areas are thin enough for light to glow through.
Floating pieces and bridges
Any part of the pumpkin wall that is completely ringed by cut-outs has nothing to hang on to. Classic examples are the middle of the letters O, A, B and D, the pupil inside an eye, and teeth that touch neither lip. The tool finds every such piece and connects it to the rest of the pumpkin by the shortest path it can, so the bridges stay small and don't cut across the design more than needed. You'll see how many were added under the preview.
- Bridge width sets how thick the strips are. Thin bridges look neater but are easier to snap; wide ones are safer for soft pumpkins and for children carving.
- Mark them in red shows the loose pieces without changing the design. Use it if you'd rather add your own bridges, or pin loose pieces back with toothpicks.
- Remove specks merges tiny spots into their surroundings. Pieces smaller than about ⅛ inch are very hard to carve cleanly, so leave it on for photo stencils.
Photo stencils that carve well
Bright parts of the photo become cut-outs and dark parts stay as pumpkin, so light matters more than anything else. A face or a pet lit from one side, cropped close, on a plain background gives clear shapes. If a photo turns into a spray of small holes, raise Smoothing and Remove specks, or choose a bigger size so the details come out larger. Swap cut and keep flips the picture, which suits dark subjects on a light background.
Text and names
Bold block letters are the easiest to carve. Keep it short: a name, a house number or a word like BOO fits a medium pumpkin, and each line gets smaller as you add more. The letters use fonts installed on your device, so they can look slightly different on another computer. Letters with closed shapes (O, A, B, D, P, Q, R) get bridges automatically.
Printing and transferring
- Print at 100% or Actual size, and check the 1-inch bar at the bottom of the page with a ruler.
- For a stencil that spans pages, trim the edge of each page, overlap it up to the orange dashed line on its neighbour and tape it.
- Tape the stencil to the pumpkin, pressing the paper flat. Cut small slits into the edges if it won't lie flat on a round pumpkin.
- Poke holes along every outline with a pin or poking tool, close together. Remove the paper and carve from dot to dot, starting with the smallest details in the middle and working outwards.
Hosting a Halloween party too? Make printable bingo cards with your own Halloween words, or sketch an original design to scale on printable graph paper first.
Privacy
Everything runs in your browser. Photos are never uploaded, stored or added to links, and the PDF and PNG are made on your device. Share links carry only the design or text and your settings. Your size, paper and carving settings are remembered in this browser only.