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In the last few weeks I have been going through a series on preparing Handwritten Recipes to engrave with your Glowforge. I have already discussed using Photoshop and tracing with Procreate. Today I’m sharing how to convert a handwritten recipe into a SVG with Adobe Illustrator. Recipes engraved on cutting boards have been very popular and I don’t see a decrease in these products any time soon. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Adobe Illustrator
• Recipe
• Glowforge

Steps:

1. Upload your picture or file into Adobe Illustrator. This will work best if you have a white background. 
2. With your image you are going to go to Object> Image Trace> Make and expand
3. In your layer panel, you are going to hide all the layers that are just white. This will exclude the middles of letters like “o” and “a”. If you skip this step, your letters will not engrave properly.
4. Now you can adjust the recipe. If anything needs centered you should be able to move the title and any of the sections of the recipe. 

Converting recipes into a SVG is my favorite way of preparing recipes to engrave with my Glowforge. I like having the ability to change and edit the SVG if I need to. 

 Interested in getting a Glowforge? If you use this link, you will get a discount and I will get a compensation at no cost to you. Also make sure to check out my blog on 10 Things You Should Know About Getting a Glowforge!