I just purchased the silhouette. I have never used an edible printer and don't have one. But now it sounds like the silhouette is just a cutter.

Am I also going to have to purchase an edible printer to use this thing?

Are you using it to cut fondant? That machine is very similar to the Cricut machine. They are used to cut paper for scrapping and more recently for fondant in cake decorating. It is my understanding that they do not print. My cricut only cuts out designs. The color in my cricut fondant pieces is only because I've tinted the fondant before sending it through the machine. HTH's!

You do need an edible image printer to use the "print and cut" feature of the Silhouette with sugar paste. The Silhouette is a digital cutter and does not have a print feature.

It's very similar to the cricut but you don't need cartridges. You only need a pprinter is you want to use the print and cut feature. Otherwise just get Make the cut software and you can use any image you like and send it to the silhouette to cut. I have both machines and prefer the silhouette.