Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

I wanted to be able to make Amharic letters and phrases quickly on the Epilog laser cutter.  Cutting a path is always faster than rastering an image, so I downloaded the Fidel, and then modified in Inkscape to create letter stencils.  These characters were modified such that "loops" (as in an "a" or "b") do not fall out when cut with the laser, but remain attached with a thin filament.  Thus, letters and phrases can be cut out rapidly in wood, cardboard or acrylic, and used as signage or for a stencil.

The well known "Hello World" phrase (Selam Alem) was chosen for this first test.  A translation may be found here. 

I have attached the .svg file (modified in Inkscape) so you may try it out yourself!