Laser software such as LightBurn or xTool Creative Space can fill-engrave closed vector shapes or cut along their outlines, depending on the layer settings. A traced vector file gives cleaner edges than engraving the pixels of a small picture, and it can be scaled to any size. This page traces logos, drawings and silhouettes into an SVG and a DXF, sized in millimetres.
How to prepare a picture for the laser
- Upload the picture. High contrast works best: a black logo, a silhouette, line art.
- Keep Shapes to cut, which traces one colour with smooth outlines and leaves out specks and the background.
- Under More options type the Width in millimetres, for example 80. The SVG and the DXF are then exactly that wide, and the height follows the picture's proportions.
- Download the SVG (or the DXF) and import it into your laser software. Check the size after importing: some programs assume a unit for DXF files.
Engrave, cut or score
- Engrave (fill): use the SVG as it is. Every shape is filled, so the laser fills the inside of letters and shapes and leaves the holes empty.
- Cut: the laser follows the outlines of the same shapes. Tick Outlines only under More options if your software should see thin lines instead of filled shapes.
- Score or single-line engraving: a drawn line traced as an outline gives two passes, one on each edge. For a single pass along each line, choose Single lines (centerline) as the picture type.
- Several operations: trace in colour (Logo or icon) and give each colour its own layer setting in the laser software; in the DXF every colour is a layer of its own.
Tips
- Thin details burn away. Lines thinner than the kerf of your laser may disappear or merge when cutting. Raise the speck size to drop the smallest pieces, or trace a bolder version.
- Wrong part traced: if the tracing shows the background instead of your design, tick Swap drawing and background.
- Photos are better engraved as dithered pictures than as vectors: tracing a photo gives posterised areas, not shades of grey.
- Smoothness controls how closely outlines follow the pixels. Higher values give smoother, faster cuts with fewer nodes; lower values keep small details.
More about what this tool reads and writes: Image Vectorizer.