There are two established ways to make a sandblast stencil, and they come from different corners of the industry. A lot of people only know one of them exists, which is a shame, because the wrong one for your work is expensive in a quiet, ongoing way.
We supply computer-cut film, so treat this as an interested party’s account — but the comparison below is one you can verify, and there are cases where photoresist is clearly the right answer.
The two workflows
Photoresist
A light-sensitive film. Artwork is printed onto a transparency, the film is exposed to UV light through it, then washed out in water to develop the stencil. The exposed areas harden; the rest washes away.
Equipment: exposure unit, washout station, drying. Typical users in the U.S. are awards and trophy shops, drinkware and tumbler personalisation, and gift engraving.
Computer-cut film
A PVC film with adhesive. Artwork is a vector file, cut on a plotter with a blade, then the unwanted areas are weeded out by hand.
Equipment: plotter, and for anything large, a laminating machine. Typical users are architectural and production glass shops — shower doors, partitions, large panels, signage.
Side by side
| Photoresist | Computer-cut film | |
|---|---|---|
| Stencil made by | UV exposure and washout | Blade cutting and weeding |
| Artwork format | Bitmap or vector, printed to film positive | Vector only |
| Equipment needed | Exposure unit, washout station | Plotter (+ laminator for large work) |
| Halftones and photographs | Yes — the real advantage | No |
| Very fine detail | Excellent | Limited by blade and weeding |
| Large panels | Awkward — limited by exposure unit size | Straightforward — limited by plotter width |
| Setup time per new design | Print positive, expose, wash, dry | Send file, cut, weed |
| Consumable | Photoresist sheet or roll | PVC film roll |
| Wet process | Yes — washout and drying | No |
| Typical market | Awards, trophies, drinkware, personalisation | Architectural and production glass |
Where photoresist genuinely wins
Two things, and they are real.
Halftones and photographic images
If you need to reproduce a photograph, a gradient, or a fine halftone screen, photoresist does it and a blade cannot. A blade cuts a closed path; it cannot produce a dot screen at photographic resolution. This is not a limitation you can work around.
Very fine detail at small scale
On a trophy plate or a glass award, detail can be finer than a blade can cut and finer than anyone could weed by hand. Photoresist has no weeding step, so complexity costs nothing extra.
If your product is awards, trophies, drinkware, or photo-on-glass work, photoresist is the correct workflow and this article should not talk you out of it.
Where computer-cut film wins
Scale
This is the decisive one. A shower door is 2000 mm tall. A partition may be larger. Photoresist workflow is bounded by the size of your exposure unit and your washout station — you cannot expose a panel-sized stencil without panel-sized equipment, and the wet processing gets unwieldy fast.
Plotters cut to 1830 x 2440 mm, 2000 x 2440 mm, 2000 x 3300 mm, with larger available. Film comes in 50 m rolls up to 1200 mm wide. Scale is simply not the constraint.
No wet process
Washout means water, drainage, drying time and floor space. Cut-and-weed is dry. For a production shop that is a meaningful difference in floor plan, throughput and mess.
Repeat production
For a job you run repeatedly, the vector file is the asset. Cut it again in minutes. No positive to print, no exposure to get right, no batch variation from exposure or washout timing.
Turnaround on new artwork
Customer sends a vector logo, you cut it. There is no intermediate step producing a film positive.
The decision, condensed
| If your work is… | Workflow |
|---|---|
| Awards, trophies, plaques | Photoresist |
| Drinkware, tumblers, personalisation | Photoresist |
| Photographic or halftone images on glass | Photoresist |
| Shower doors, partitions, architectural panels | Computer-cut film |
| Signage and logos on glass | Computer-cut film |
| Large-format decorative glass | Computer-cut film |
| Repeat production of the same design | Computer-cut film |
| Both small personalised items and large panels | Both — they are not substitutes |
These are not competing products so much as tools from two different trades that happen to share a blasting cabinet. Shops that do both work usually run both, and that is a reasonable answer rather than a failure to decide.
The cost comparison people get wrong
Comparing consumable prices per square metre misses where the money actually goes.
- Photoresist: low labour per stencil regardless of complexity, but a wet process with equipment, space, water and drying time, plus a printed positive for every new design.
- Computer-cut: near-zero processing overhead, but weeding labour that scales with pattern complexity. A simple logo weeds in moments; an intricate pattern does not.
The practical implication: computer-cut film is strongly favourable on large, relatively simple work and less so on small, intricate work. Which is, not coincidentally, exactly how the two markets have divided.
If you are on computer-cut film and weeding is eating your day, the usual fix is film that is thinner than what you are using rather than a change of workflow — see the thickness guide.
What does not change either way
Once the stencil is on the glass, everything downstream is identical. Same abrasive grit selection, same 0.6–0.8 MPa working pressure, same machines, same troubleshooting. The stencil workflow decides how you get to the blast, not what happens during it.
If you are moving into architectural work
Shops that started in awards and are moving into shower doors and partitions are the most common case for switching — and the equipment they already own does not scale to it. Tell us your panel sizes and volume and we will tell you what the plotter and laminator side actually requires.
We also supply free sample material so you can test the film on your own equipment before committing. Request a sample or get in touch. We usually reply within one business day.