Carving Fonts Final Results - Questions!

[BSarte]

Since being a newbee to carving and getting the final results I am looking for, have a few questions hopefully someone can guide me to get the results I am looking for?

This is the first carving I have done, still using Basic software. This is a carving using Monotype Corsiva font with outline, depth is .25" on a .75" pine board which I filled in with resin then sanded. Looks OK to me but if I used Raster instead of outline would the letters be fully carved instead of the outline look?

Hate to waste a board to test it.

Also, using the resin to fill, are there any techniques to get the resin polished better? I have done my final sanding, wood is nice but the resin still shows sanding marks. I plan to hit this with a spray final coat of satin. Will that make the resin show more polished?

I am doing carvings for my family (total of 10 carvings) for Christmas presents.