Laser Engraving Your Own Logo: Quick and Simple Steps

Engraving your own logo is easy, and you can save lots of money by doing it yourself. Whether you're looking to promote your business or you're a hobbyist looking to sign your work, we'll explain what you need to complete this DIY engraving project.

Pick the Right Machine

There are two types of lasers you can use to engrave logos: fiber and CO2. Fiber lasers are faster and more powerful than CO2 lasers and can engrave a wider variety of materials — but they are also much more expensive and work with less variety of materials than CO2 lasers. CO2 lasers are cheaper and more compact than fiber lasers (some are even desktop-sized). Their price point and ease of use makes it easy to keep your laser engraving business in-house, saving you money and time.

With the exception of most metals, you can use CO2 lasers on most surfaces where you would want to put your logo, including glass, plastic, leather, wood, and acrylic. If you need to engrave on metal, though, you should choose a fiber laser since it can engrave on almost all types of bare metal. You can use CO2 lasers to engrave aluminum and stainless steel with the help of a laser marking spray, but CO2 lasers won't work to engrave other kinds of metal since their high wavelengths bounce off most metals. 

In general, if you're not working with metal, or limiting your engraving to aluminum and stainless steel, a CO2 laser is a great choice for small businesses and hobbyists looking to do small-scale engraving.

Whether you go with a fiber or CO2 laser, when choosing a laser engraver, make sure the output laser power, which is measured in watts (W), is powerful enough for the material you want to engrave. If you're engraving metal, you'll need a minimum of 60 W. For materials like wood, fabric, and leather, you only need about 500 mW.

Get Your Image Ready

To produce a good-quality logo, you'll need a good engraving software and a high-quality image file of your logo. Your laser engraver machine will probably come loaded with proprietary software, but if you're looking for a good third-party software to use, try LightBurn, LaserWeb, or LaserGRBL.  

Your logo can be in either raster (JPG, PNG, BMP) or vector (SVG, EPS, AI) format, but having your logo in a vectorized format will make engraving more straightforward. Unless you're investing in a MOPA fiber laser (see below) to engrave in color, your logo should be in black and white, and you should remove any shaded areas.  

Make sure your logo is one whole object instead of a group of objects. This means removing any lines that separate letters or shapes, unless you want those to be engraved by the laser.  

Once your logo is ready, upload it into the engraving software and scale it to make it the right size for your engraving job. Adjust the software's engraving settings in accordance with the material you're engraving and then preview the job to make sure everything looks right.

Engrave Away

The fun is about to begin! Make sure you've got all of your materials assembled and your laser engraver is turned on and ready to go. Before you begin, double check your machine's safety requirements. For example, make sure you are wearing safety goggles and are operating in a well-ventilated area.

If you're using a CO2 laser to engrave aluminum or stainless steel, now is the time to coat your metal's surface with a laser marking agent. Let it dry completely before proceeding — and when you're done engraving, use a wet cloth to wipe it down to remove any excess marking agent.  

Now you are ready to engrave! Tell your laser engraver to start, and sit back and marvel as your logo comes to life.

Why Choose OMTech

Based in Southern California, OMTech is an industry leader in laser engraving, and our FM Series Fiber Laser Markers and CO2 Lasers Engravers can help you create stunning logos. These machines are some of the most powerful and accurate on the market, and OMTech offers a range of sizes and prices to suit your needs. If you're looking to take your logo to the next level, OMTech also offers cutting-edge Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) technology that lets you engrave in a full spectrum of colors. 

OMTech also offers easy financing options to allow you to start engraving your logo on products right away, and we back our products with a two-year warranty and lifetime U.S.-based, expert technical support.

Reach out to OMTech to learn more about our line of laser engravers and see which one is right for you.