What is the difference between raster engraving and vector cutting?
There are two different modes that a laser can perform in: raster engraving and vector cutting. Raster engraving is when the laser head moves back and forth like a printer and engraves away material to create an image or graphic. Kern Laser Systems use grayscale coloring to determine how much power the laser uses for any given pixel. For example, imagine a box that is divided into three sections of white, gray and black. The white portion of the box will not engrave at all, the gray portion will engrave at half depth or half power and the black portion will engrave at full power and give you the deepest engraving. Vector cutting is performed by the laser head following an outline and piercing through the material so that it is removed from the original piece. Generally more power and slower speeds are used for vector cutting. Kern’s KCAM laser software allows you to run combined raster and vector files to save you time. There is also a checkbox for disabling the modes if you don’t want
