Up to 2mm is considered deep for most materials: 0.25 microns (depending on material) and has excellent legibility. In laser terms depth is usually specified in microns. If you would like to achieve a deeper result or an engraving a little heavier let us know your specification. The Strokes & Fonts sample on the material pages demonstrates the clarity achievable on each material. In raster engraving terms the marking is cosmetic, shallow and typically a balance between legibility and cleanliness. We have established optimized settings for all materials. Raster engraving standard appearance & depth When arranging artwork for engraving that has a few components on one sheet, it’s best to keep all of the raster engraving as close together as possible and in a horizontal row.

Set all fill colours to: Black: RGBA: 0,0,0,255.

Select your line and select Path > Stroke to path command.

Set strokes to a minimum of 0.40mm (anything thinner won’t engrave).

To turn a line into a filled shape in Inkscape: All vectors you would like raster engraved must be indicated by a vector fill. While we can raster engrave thin vector lines, it’s advised that you vector engrave/ score them.

If you have elements of your drawing that will only fit onto a large template but don’t need to use a whole sheet, just leave the remaining areas blank. Cutting & engraving densely populated files over large areas can cause the material to warp during the process. If you have lots of small components from the same material it’s best to draft these on a series of smaller templates approximately 1000mm x 500mm rather than on one large template. if your components can fit within a 1000mm x 500mm template, don’t position your drawing on a 2000mm x 1000mm template with lots of excess. Try and use templates that suit best the scale of your drawings. If you want parts cut / engraved from multiple materials, Use the corresponding templates for chosen material Template sizes If you want all your parts cut / engraved from the same material, arrange into multiples of the same templates and draw as many as required. Working with the drawing templates Multiple files from same material Once downloaded, select and open the sheet size that is large enough for your components. Templates for Inkscape can be downloaded from our templates page.

Materials come in all different sizes depending on the maximum sheet size supplied from the manufacturer. They help to verify scale and material type. If using our materials, we recommend downloading our drawing templates.

Inkscape vector specs