instruction for images with text
I seem to be okay with getting things to cut and engrave where facing isn't critical.
Is there a tutorial that covers how things need to be flipped and aligned once they are imported in order to get the proper output?
Yes I wrote a post/k40 forum item about that. It is very simple so will repeat it here to get you going. For example I downloaded a cake topper picture from google and imported into Inkscape. Now you need to trace that picture via menu path/ trace bitmap/ option edge detection. Some picture have more patterns inside. Via menu path/break apart you can remove the annoying bits. If there are too many parts to remove and it's too labour intensive than you can manually trace the outline. It seems also labour intensive but it really pays off since the inkscape trace is not that great. Use the bezier type manual trace so you get nice bents. Have a look at my birthday cake topper and svg files. https://awesometech1.wpengine.com/k40-forum/?view=thread&id=73
In the menu bar ribbon you see the pyramid icons with a divider which indicates the x or y axis flip. Flip the image on the y axis for cutting objects and use the cutting plugin to create the gcode. The mirror image is shown in Inkscape but in the K40 it turns out well. Often you don't need to mirror since you can just turn the object and front/back are the same colour if you use for example acrylic. However flipping the Y axis and cut gives you immediate feedback while cutting (if you see a small error you can stop the process and save time).
Hint: with $30 set to 2048, the cutting value settings are almost linear with the amp meter. 1500 equals 15mA, 800 equal 8mA etc.