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7 June 2010

Laser Marking Inverted TrueType Text on Wood Using Synrad Lasers

By default, WinMark Pro - Synrad's laser marking software shipped with Flyer/Fenix Flyer marking heads - allows the user to fill standard TrueType® text so that the laser marks, or fills, regions inside each text character. However, for certain applications, customers may require an inverted text fill where a specific region outside the text string is marked, leaving text characters unmarked, to produce an embossed look. This process is especially helpful for creating engraved marks in materials like wood where an inverted fill creates the illusion of more apparent depth to the mark. To address this need, WinMark Pro v6 now includes a new Invert Text property for marking filled TrueType, OpenType, or PostScript formatted fonts.

To demonstrate this new feature, a wood sample was marked twice using a company logo - one with the standard filled text option and another with the new inverted, filled text option - to illustrate the differences in visual look and mark speed. For this demonstration, a Synrad 25 W laser was used with a FH Flyer marking head equipped with a 200 mm focal length lens that produces a 290 µm (0.011") focused spot size on the wood surface.

When these logos were marked, the standard text fill was completed in a cycle time 16.53 seconds while the inverted text fill was completed in 41.11 seconds. The cycle time for the inverted text mark is longer simply because of the larger mark area. Although engraved depth is the same for each mark, the inverted text produces a more embossed look.


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