A laser reads paths,
not pictures.
A laser cutter does not see your artwork — it follows vector paths in a specific order, at a specific power, and stops dead at an open contour. Here is how to get a raster design into a file that cuts cleanly the first time.
Cut lines and engrave fills are different objects
Nearly every failed laser job traces back to the machine misreading which parts to cut and which to burn. That distinction lives in the file, not the machine.
Cut = hairline stroke, no fill
A cut path is a closed contour with a stroke width the software treats as hairline (0.001 in / 0.025 mm) and no fill. Give it a thick stroke and most controllers will engrave the outline of the stroke instead — two parallel cuts around a ghost shape.
Engrave = filled shape, no stroke
Anything that should be burned into the surface must be a filled region. A traced logo full of open paths engraves as a scribble, because there is no enclosed area to raster.
Four steps, in this order
Vectorize
Trace the raster to real editable paths. Auto-traced output from a clean source is fine here — laser work forgives a node or two in a way that print does not.
Close every contour
Open paths are the number one cause of a cut that stops halfway. Join endpoints before you do anything else.
Split cut from engrave
Put cut contours and engrave fills on separate layers or colours. Every controller maps operations by layer or stroke colour.
Export and test on scrap
Export SVG, import to LightBurn or the machine app, and run one small test on offcut material before committing the sheet.
The four checks that save a sheet of material
Material is the expensive part of a failed job, and every one of these takes seconds.
Closed paths — Every cut contour joins back to itself. An open path cuts partway and abandons the part.
No duplicate lines — Traced files often stack two identical contours. The laser cuts both — double burn, charred edge, sometimes fire.
Kerf allowance — The beam removes material. For interlocking parts, offset by roughly half the kerf (~0.1mm on 3mm ply) or the joints will be loose.
Real units — Set the document to mm or inches and confirm the artboard size. An SVG with no units imports at whatever the machine app guesses.
The rest of the production chain
PNG or JPG to editable SVG
The conversion itself — editable paths you can split into cut and engrave layers.
Cutting on a Cricut instead
Same idea, different constraints — blade pressure and mat size rather than beam kerf.
Building cut files from scratch
When you are drawing for the machine rather than converting existing art.
What operators actually ask
01Why does my laser cut the outline of my lines instead of the line itself?+
02Can I laser cut straight from a traced PNG?+
03What SVG settings work best for Glowforge and xTool?+
04How do I handle kerf so my parts fit together?+
05Should engraving be vector or raster?+
Get a cut-ready vector out of any image
Upload the raster, get real editable paths, then split cut from engrave and send it to the machine.