Adobe Illustrator has very good support for reading and writing EPS and if you are already using other Adobe products like Flash or Photoshop it integrates well with both of these as well. Adobe illustrator is the standard format in the print industry because it works with virtually all systems and you do not have to choose between PC or Mac. One the benefits of using this tool is that it is not resolution dependent which means that by using this tool you get a better print output. Here’s our top six:Īdobe Illustrator – Adobe Illustrator provides an EPS format (Encapsulated PostScript) that is perhaps the most common vector image format. There are many tools, both free and paid, that you can use to create vector files for use in laser engraving. Resources to Help You Create Vector Files for Laser Engraving Unless you’re intentionally creating pixel art, you want any shapes in your design to look perfectly smooth and uniform when engraved onto your material, and this can only be achieved by using a vector file. This increased precision allows perfect-resolution imaging that leads to the best design and engraving results. Instead of coding color-values into specific pixels on the screen, vector-drawing programs code the mathematical formula for a shape or line, along with the coordinates of the object on the canvas. Vector files are different though – the drawing program understands shapes and lines using mathematical equations, and it actually uses math to create visual representations of those shapes.

Pixels on your screen are arranged in a grid though – so you can never draw a perfect circle using this method. Bit mapping programs like Microsoft Paint turn your cursor into a “pixel selector”, and each shape drawing tool is just a differently-shaped tool for choosing which pixels you want to color. The answer to that actually involves mathematics. When I first encountered vector files, I was confused about how you could draw a shape that would stay smooth at any resolution. In contrast, a circle drawn in a vector drawing program like Corel Draw would appear perfectly smooth at any resolution. If you draw a circle in a program that uses pixel mapping, and you zoomed in on that circle, eventually it would look highly pixelated, and the smooth edges of the circle would be covered in tiny edges. A key feature of vector files is that they contain lines and shapes, and that the lines and shapes are perfectly scale-able – they remain smooth at any resolution.

When the laser cuts into your chosen material, it cuts in lines.

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