Daisy Cutter

Inkscape extension that punches a hole through every object beneath a selected shape.

With stock Inkscape, Path → Difference only cuts one pair at a time. You select the cutter and a single path under it, run Difference, duplicate the cutter, and do it again for the next path. That gets old fast on a busy design.

Daisy Cutter runs that loop for you. Select one cutter object; it subtracts that shape from every object below, leaving a hole in the cutter's outline. Each cut object keeps its own fill, stroke, and style. The cutter is deleted when done (optional: keep it).

Shape Builder can cut the same holes, but it works one overlap at a time and merges everything into a single styled path. Daisy Cutter does the whole loop in one pass and keeps each object's style.

Install

Copy the extension files into your Inkscape extensions directory:

# Linux
cp daisy_cutter.py daisy_cutter.inx ~/.config/inkscape/extensions/

# macOS
cp daisy_cutter.py daisy_cutter.inx ~/Library/Application\ Support/org.inkscape.Inkscape/config/inkscape/extensions/

# Windows
copy daisy_cutter.py daisy_cutter.inx %APPDATA%\inkscape\extensions\

Restart Inkscape after installing.

Usage

1. Put the cutter above the objects you want to cut (higher z-order).
2. Select exactly one object: the cutter. Single shape or path only, not a group.
3. Extensions → Modify Path → Daisy Cutter
4. Overlapping objects below the cutter get a hole; styles stay put.

Options

Option	Default	Description
Keep the cutter object afterwards	off	Leave the cutter in the document
Only cut objects overlapping the cutter	on	Skip shapes that don't overlap the cutter

Requirements

• Inkscape 1.2+ (inkex plus headless path-difference)
• Cutter must be a single path/shape (use Path → Union or Combine first if it's a group)

Limitations

• Groups, images, and clones are not cut directly (normal shapes inside groups are fine)
• Objects inside defs, clip paths, masks, etc. are skipped
• Hidden or locked objects (including via a parent layer/group) are skipped
• Needs Inkscape on PATH (boolean ops run in a headless Inkscape process)