What simple adjustments can I make to a design to save time engraving?

By understanding that your laser designs and layouts not only affect the appearance but also the processing time, you may be able to save yourself some precious time. 

When doing tests for a project, you may experience slight time savings when switching from a thicker font to a thinner font. The reason for this minimal time savings with a thinner font was that the laser head had to scan over essentially the same real estate and hence it did not matter how heavy or light the font was. 

By substituting a hatch-filled border with a vector cut outline, you can save even more time. This might be something you try if asked to engrave a border on coated metals like anodized aluminum. Using this vector outline may become less effective on different substrates like wood as the visibility of a vector border line may be less noticeable. 

   —Columbia Awards