Things You Should Know About Designing for Laser Cutting
When you are first getting started in laser cutting or engraving, you will need to learn some of the basics, like how to make designs for cutting. Typically, CO2 laser cutters work in a way that is very similar to an inkjet printer, in the sense that you send it a design digitally and it recreates it.
To better understand design types, you will need to understand the difference in raster images and vector images. Raster image is like a picture that is made up of tiny pixels and can be easily distorted if you try to resize it. Vector images will not distort no matter how much you resize it. Both vector and raster can be processed by laser cutting/engraving machines, however raster images cannot be used for cutting. You can determine which type of image you have by the file type:
Raster file types: JPG, PNG, GIF
Vector file types: SVG, EPS, PDF, DXF, DSG, CDR (CorelDRAW), AI (Adobe Illustrator)
By ensuring you use the right types of images for the type of cutting or engraving you are doing will mean that your designs come out as they should.