Laser cutting file types, explained

Upload the right file and our laser tool prices your job in seconds. Upload the wrong one and it quotes only the engraving, redraws your shape as a silhouette, or finds nothing to cut. Here’s how to send the right one, in plain English, no design degree needed.

Vector vs raster: the one thing that matters

A laser cuts by following lines, so your file has to contain real lines.

• Vector (SVG, DXF, often AI or PDF) stores your design as lines and curves. The laser follows them exactly, at any size, so you get an instant price.
• Raster (PNG, JPG, screenshots, photos) is a grid of pixels. There’s no line to follow, so it can only be engraved as shaded art, or traced into vector first.

	Vector (SVG, DXF)	Raster (PNG, JPG, photos)
Made of	Lines and curves	A grid of pixels
Scales without blur	Yes	No, goes fuzzy when enlarged
Instant cut quote	Yes	No
Good for	Cutting and clean engraving	Engraving shaded images only
Typical source	Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma, CAD	Phone camera, screenshot, web download

If you remember one line from this page: send a vector file for anything you want cut out.

Fills vs outlines: why a solid black logo confuses the laser

Here’s the one that trips most people up. A filled black logo is a solid area of colour, not a line, so the laser has nothing of its own to follow.

Our tool fixes this automatically: it traces the outline and cuts the silhouette, so a solid star becomes a star cut from the material. Perfect for keychains, signage letters and ornaments.

Want it engraved onto something instead of cut out? Just say so when you send the file. (No vector at all? We can vectorise your image as a small paid add-on, see below.)

Colours: black cuts, red engraves

Two stroke colours tell the laser what to do, and it comes down to depth:

• Black stroke = cut — straight through the material.
• Red stroke = engrave — marks the surface only.

Set those two colours and your quote comes back already split into cut and engrave paths. Here’s the same convention on a real design:

Used other colours? We’ll confirm with you before running.

Setting stroke colour in common tools

• Illustrator — give the shape a stroke, set it to pure black (000000) for cut or pure red (FF0000) for engrave. Any thickness; we read the colour, not the weight.
• Inkscape — Object → Fill and Stroke: fill off, stroke on, black or red. Save as Plain SVG.
• Figma / Canva — fine for design, fiddly for laser; they tend to export fills and PNGs. Export the cleanest SVG you can; if it still needs work, we’ll flag it (and any file-prep cost) when we quote.

Exporting a clean SVG in millimetres

A laser bed works in millimetres, but many tools export SVGs in pixels, and 100 px is not 100 mm. Get it wrong and your part comes in at the wrong size.

• Set document units to mm before you draw.
• Size artwork to the real finished dimensions (a 60 mm coaster is 60 mm on the canvas).
• Export as SVG in mm.
• Size looks off in the quote? Tell us the real dimensions and we’ll rescale.

DXF from CAD is already in real-world units, ideal for anything dimensional or mechanical.

A good file, in five checks

No vector? Send us the logo

Plenty of jobs start as an old logo with no source file in sight. Totally normal.

WhatsApp it to +65 8923 2984 with a note on what you want made, and we’ll quote it manually. Want a reusable cut file? Vectorising is a small add-on: we redraw your artwork as clean outlines so it cuts crisply and you can reorder any time. We’ll price it with your quote.

Want the full rundown of materials, thicknesses and finishes? See our laser engraving and cutting page.