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Overlapping Raster Objects
If the artwork created has raster objects that overlap, the driver will automatically filter out the portion of
the object that is not visible so that only the visible part of the underlying filled area will be engraved to
prevent the overlapped area from being engraved twice. This allows the color white to be used as an
effective drawing tool. Since the laser system will not engrave the color white (this is the background color),
it can be used to block out the undesired engraving areas of raster objects. However, you cannot use a white
fill to cover a vector outline, the outline will vector cut even though you cannot see it on screen.
Overlapping Vector Objects
The driver does not filter vector objects that overlap each other. If you place one thin vector outline on top
of another, both outlines will be cut by the laser system. This can be useful for making multiple cutting
passes in one laser job for thicker materials.
Bitmapped Scanned Images
When printing raster objects such as photographs which are grayscale or color bitmaps, keep in mind that
the printer driver uses a dither pattern filter screen to reduce the images to black and white (monochrome
images) for laser processing using variable spacing between the dots to create the illusion of shades of gray.
These dither patterns are relatively coarse, so it is not necessary to use high-resolution bitmaps. Grayscale
or color photos should be reduced to 300 to 600 dpi for purposes of laser processing and scanned images
should be scanned into the computer at 300 to 600 dpi.
Postscript Images and Fonts
The laser system is not a postscript device. This means that Postscript fills, Postscript textures and especially
Postscript fonts are not compatible with the laser system and should be avoided.
Font Troubles
Occasionally you may have trouble printing certain fonts at certain sizes in some Windows applications. In
these cases, it is sometimes helpful to export the graphic to a bitmap format, such as jpeg, and re-import it
into your software. This process forces the fonts to be converted to bitmap images.
Adobe Illustrator (up to version CS2)
Illustrator versions CS and CS2 do not properly support non-square landscape pages. For this reason, to print
effectively from these programs, you must set up your page size as landscape and make the width and height
both equal to the largest dimension of your laser system’s processing field. For example, if your processing field
is 24” wide x 12” tall, make the page in Illustrator 24” x 24” landscape. You can then treat the upper left corner
of the illustrator page as the zero-zero point in the laser system processing field and only use the upper half of
the page in illustrator. Anything in the lower half of the page will not be printed. Also, make sure you are using
an RGB color palette and the vector line stroke width is set to .001” (.0254 mm) or less.
Adobe Illustrator (CS3 and higher)
Illustrator versions CS3 and higher treat landscape page sizes correctly but make sure you select user-defined
page size at time of printing and make sure the page size in Illustrator matches the page size in the printer
driver. Also, make sure you are using an RGB color palette and the vector line stroke width is set to .001” (.0254
mm) or less.
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