students who are FINISHED THEIR ASSIGNED PROJECTS and have been working on Typing Club and Coding may choose to make something using the laser engraver.

This is the type of project that we work on in Graphic Tech, which you should consider signing up for next year!

If you think that you would like to make something for a gift or for yourself, DOWNLOAD THIS TEMPLATE

Once the file is finished downloading, find it and double click it. It should open in a program called Illustrator.

The engraver will ONLY ENGRAVE THE COLOUR (ok, shade) BLACK. Your design needs to be BLACK AND WHITE or BLACK AND TRANSPARENT.

This would work great:

This would not:

If you’re looking for a logo, you might like a site called Brands of the World. The problem with that site is that most logos are not black and white. Files downloaded from there may be easy to edit, though.

If you wish to use Google Images, make sure you use the Tools button:

and narrow your search to Large files:

You should also change the Colour option to Black and white:

If you see something that you like and it looks like it would work, click on it. Go to the preview pane on the right and right click. Choose Save Image As…

I highly recommend a site called The Noun Project

In order to use that site, you need an account. Sign up with your email address if you would like to download something.

You can use your school email if you like:

Or you could sign up with Google or Facebook if you prefer:

Search for whatever you want. When you find something you like, click on it. It’ll go to a page with a blue Get This Icon button. Press it!

You’ll then be asked if you want to pay for it or not. Who likes paying for stuff!? Choose Basic Download:

There are two file types. Both will work, but the easiest to work with is SVG:

When you have downloaded the images that you want to engrave, go back to Illustrator.

In Illustrator, go to the File menu at the top left and choose Place:

Go find your file. Select it and choose Place:

Click on your screen to place it at its original size OR draw a box to size it into whichever of the template shapes you like.

You’ll probably want to resize the image. Make sure you are on the Selection tool on the top left of the tool bar on the left side of your screen. Pressing the V key on your keyboard will activate that tool.

When you resize your image, hold the Shift key and pull from the corner:

Fit your image into whichever template you would like:

Don’t worry about the text below. That has a funny way of disappearing…

 

I’ve given you one of a few different basic shapes/objects. If you don’t want to use them all, you certainly do not have to.

If you wanted more of one of those objects, you could make copies of those template shapes.

At the top right of your screen, you should see a tab that says Layers. Open that tab/window

You’ll notice that there are two layers. The top one is where your images go. The bottom one has the cut lines. The file that I’ve given you has those locked. If you wish, you can unlock that layer in order to make copies, resize them, or get rid of shapes that are there.

Let’s say I wanted to make more than one coaster. Once I unlock the layer, I could use that Selection tool to select that coaster shape.

In order to make a copy, you can hold the Alt key on your keyboard and drag out a copy of that shape.