How to Import LightBurn Layers as a Swatch Library in Adobe Illustrator

Many makers begin their 2D designs in a Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a powerful graphic design tool widely used by professionals and hobbyists alike. It offers a range of features, including the ability to work with swatches—color and pattern libraries that help streamline the design process. LightBurn is a popular software for laser cutting and engraving that uses layers that can be set with different settings. These layers are assigned as colors and can be imported into Adobe Illustrator to make your design process easier. When you set a shape color in Illustrator that matches one of Lightburn’s layer colors, when you open your file in Lightburn, Lightburn will recognize the color and apply your pre-set layer to that shape. If you’re using both Adobe Illustrator as well as LightBurn and want to import Lightburn’s color layers as a swatch library into Adobe Illustrator, this blog post will guide you through the process. Let’s get started!

Instead of matching each color one by one, you can grab a pre-made swatch file right here at CuttingPaths.com:

Step 1

Open Adobe Illustrator

Step 2

Go to Window > Swatches to open the Swatches panel.

Step 3

Click on the panel menu icon (top-right corner of the Swatches panel) and choose “Open Swatch Library” > “Other Library.”

Step 4

Navigate to the location where you saved your AI files and select the one you want to import. In our case, it’s the “Lightburn.ase” file.

Alternatively, you can copy this file to your Adobe Illustrator default swatches folder.

On PC, the default location is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator(year)\Presets\en_US\Swatches

On Mac, the default folder location is user/library/application support/adobe/adobe illustrator xx/your language folder/swatches

or Illustrator/Presets/Swatches

Step 5

The imported Lightburn swatch library will appear as a new tab in the Swatches panel.

Pro-Tip:

Select “Persistent” to make this swatch palette library load with every new document you create in Illustrator.

Now, any time you save or export a file in Illustrator using these colors, Lightburn should recognize them and assign them to cut/engrave layers accordingly.

This file was created in Illustrator using the Lightburn swatches:

And here’s the file imported into Lightburn:

Notice the shapes have the correct colors to match Lightburn’s layers.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can import LightBurn layers as a swatch library into Adobe Illustrator, allowing you to seamlessly incorporate your laser-cutting and engraving designs into your Illustrator projects. This integration can enhance your workflow and provide you with greater design flexibility. Now you can unleash your creativity by combining the power of LightBurn and Adobe Illustrator!