Laser engravers read image data as instructions for power and speed. Dark pixels tell the laser to burn deeper or move slower; light pixels mean less power or faster movement.
Photos contain smooth gradients, soft shadows, and color information that doesn’t directly map to clean burn decisions. If you send a midtone-heavy photo to the laser, the result is often muddy and flat.
Photo preparation is about translating visual information into clear instructions the laser can execute: clean edges, controlled tonal distribution, and material-appropriate texture strategies.
Resolution matters more than you think. For detailed work, start with images that are at least 300 DPI at the final engraving size. A 4x6 inch engraving should be at least 1200x1800 pixels.
Lighting in the original photo determines your options. Flat, even lighting gives you more control. Harsh shadows or blown highlights limit what you can salvage.
Color photos need a conversion strategy. Standard grayscale conversion weights green heavily, which can cause certain colors (like blues) to disappear or reds to become too light. Use channel-aware conversion (channel mixer / HSL) so important features land in the right grayscale range.
Your laser needs a decision at every pixel. Midtone-heavy images confuse the process and often engrave flat.
Increase contrast by spreading tonal values across the full range. Don’t just crush blacks and blow out whites—shape the distribution using curves or levels.
A helpful sanity check is the histogram: you generally want meaningful distribution across shadows, midtones, and highlights rather than most values clustering in the middle.
If your material and workflow behave more like a binary system (burn/no burn), dithering and halftones can approximate grayscale.
Error-diffusion dithering (e.g. Floyd–Steinberg) produces organic results for photos by scattering dots at densities that read as tonal values.
Halftones use a regular grid of dots (like newspaper printing). They can look great on wood for a stylized portrait feel. 45-degree angles often reduce moiré.
Always test on your actual material because reflectivity, beam spot size, and resin/wood density change the outcome dramatically.
If you want an outline / technical-illustration style, you’re not engraving tones—you’re extracting edges and converting them into vector paths.
Basic edge detection can produce broken lines, noise, and stray artifacts. Results depend heavily on subject/background separation, edge contrast, and resolution.
Manual tracing gives maximum control but takes longer. Automated tools can work for simple subjects with clean backgrounds.
Wood grain affects how photos render. Strong grain can overpower subtle details. Fine-grained woods (maple, cherry, bamboo) usually produce cleaner photo engravings.
Acrylic and glass often invert your intuition: engraving creates a frosted/white mark, so dark areas in the image can become light marks on the material. Many workflows require inversion and stronger contrast.
Leather, cork, and fabric tend to burn non-linearly and provide a narrow usable tonal range. High-contrast or dithered images often work better than smooth gradients.
Test your exact substrate with a small grayscale gradient first so you can set realistic black/white points for that material + laser combo.
Vector files (SVG, DXF, AI) contain paths that the laser follows as continuous lines. Use vectors for line drawings, outlines, technical illustration, and text.
Raster files (PNG, JPG, TIFF) are pixel grids. The laser treats each pixel as a power instruction. Use rasters for photographs and tonal variation.
Match image resolution to your laser’s mechanical DPI (often 300–500 DPI for CO2). Sending 150 DPI to a 500 DPI workflow adds no real detail; sending 1200 DPI just bloats file sizes.
Bit depth matters more than color profiles. For rasters, 8-bit grayscale is typically sufficient (most machines effectively map ~256 levels).
Use non-destructive editing (layers, adjustment layers, smart objects) so you can iterate after test engravings without restarting.
Always run a test on scrap. Material variability (moisture, thickness, batch differences) changes results even with the same image.
When you get a good result, document settings: source resolution, curves/levels, dithering/halftone method, laser power/speed/DPI, material type, and any pre-treatment.
Start with enough pixels for the final engraving size (often ~300 DPI at size). Downscaling is easy; inventing detail later is not.
Use channel-aware conversion so important features land in usable tonal ranges. Avoid default conversions that erase key details.
Spread values across shadows/mids/highlights. Midtone-heavy images engrave flat; controlled contrast engraves with depth.
If a detail is smaller than your spot size (often ~0.1–0.3mm for CO2), it will blur into noise. Simplify texture first.
Pick the method that matches your material and desired look. Dither for organic photo feel; halftone for stylized prints.
Vectors for line work + text; rasters for photographs. Many jobs combine both using layers in the laser software.
Run a small test section that contains highlights, midtones, and shadows. It’s the fastest way to avoid failed full jobs.
If the result is muddy: increase contrast and simplify. If details vanish: enlarge key features and reduce fine texture.
Save your processing + laser parameters so the next job is predictable and faster.
Automated conversion tools are ideal for batch workflows, consistent product photos, and cases where speed matters more than pixel-perfect artistic control.
Manual processing is still best for complex images (ambiguous edges, overlapping elements), critical showcase jobs, unusual materials, or when you want a specific style.
A strong workflow is to use automation as the starting point and then refine only what matters for the final engraving.
Use our laser engraving preset to get simplified, burn-safe geometry and consistent results.
SVG Laser Engraving Service