How to print / laser from Adobe Illustrator®

Again and again we are asked the question: “Do I really need to work with CorelDraw^®? I’d much rather edit my designs in another program, such as Adobe Illustrator^®.” The answer? No problem. Use this guide to determine the optimal settings.

Guide to the optimal settings

Select the following settings right at the beginning to make sure that the laser can interpret the graphics information correctly.

Use following settings in Adobe Illustrator:

• Line width for cut lines must be 0.001 mm
• Use RGB color space (the same like in the Job Control material database)
• The stroke must be aligned to the center

Now your design is ready, and you want to send it to the laser. Just like CorelDraw^®, Adobe Illustrator^® also communicates with the laser via the printing dialog.
Click on “Print”, and the Adobe Illustrator^® print window opens. In section “Output," make sure that RGB has been selected as the color space.
Then click on “Setup," and the classic print dialog opens.

Now select the Trotec Engraver and click in “Preferences” or “Settings”. Here you can adjust the printing parameters for your laser.

• Set the size: Width and Height must be bigger or equal the graphic size
• Mark "Minimize to Jobsize" if you only want to print visible areas of the job.
• Chose the material settings from the material database.
• Click the JobControl^® logo button to print

When you are finished, click “Print," and you will be automatically redirected to JobControl^®.

In the JobControl^® window, you will see the plate, and you can select your current job (or older jobs if so desired) from the menu on the right and place it anywhere on the plate.

More information about JobControl®