Using Adobe Illustrator

Here you can download the Illustrator file used in this tutorial.

LaserPreparationTutorial - example.ai

Step 1: Preparing Text

  1. Type the desired text

  2. Position the text in the final desired position

  3. Vectorize your text by creating Outlines

Option 1 : Right click on the text and choose : Create Outlines

Option 2 : Go the menu, click Type and then choose : Create Outlines

Option 3 : keyboard shortcut : Shift+Cmd+O (MAC)

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Stencil fonts !

If you wish to cut out the text letters be careful as the small pieces inside the letters like a, e, o, p, q etc. will not be attached to the rest of the material and will fall out.

To remedy this we can use fonts that are designed for this specific purpose and are called stencil font. Feel free to search on the internet for free stencil fonts available. There are plenty!

In case you are a lazy bastard, you can follow some of the links bellow:

167 Free Stenciled Fonts · 1001 Fonts

Stencil Fonts " Font Squirrel

30+ Best Stencil Fonts | Design Shack

Step 2: Preparing shapes

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Shapes made out of several shorter segments (see picture below) is not appropriate for use with a laser machine (If interested why, see explanation at the end of the file). What we need to do is to join all the small segments together

You can check if your shape has several segments by selecting the entire shape. If there are several segments selected in your layers window, that means that your shape is composed of several segments.

Another way to check is also by trying to select the shape itself. If clicking on the shape with the Direct Selection Tool (keyboard shortcut A) highlights only a part of the entire shape, that means that the shape is composed of several different segments.