Does anyone out there know if there is a way to laser engrave photos in greyscale 8 bit mode? The programs that I am using are Photoshop, CorelDraw and Corel Photo Paint..I am getting fair results but its a bit of a pain trying to remove the extra dots that are not needed when I use the unsharp mask feature which I have to use in order to convert 1 bit bitmap mode. Greyscale mode would be great to engrave if at all possible?


regards,


Terry

Hi Terry,
I've been engraving photos for quite a few years now and haven't had much luck engraving 8 bit images. Unfortunately you'll most likely need to look into one of the 3D renedering applications to pull this off successfully. I only know of one that works pretty well and that's EngraveLab (http://www.cadlink.com/products/engraveLab/). It's a bit pricely though; however, a sales rep will work with you if you're already using CorelDraw. I recall somewhere around the $500-$600 price range a while back. We primarily use PhotoGrav as well as our own in house developed photo engraving application.

Best of luck to you and happy engraving!

-Ed
nosplinters.com

I have had an unbelievable luck with Photograv, you can purchase it from laserbits.com. I think its about $350 and works well with 8 bit grayscale. Here is a couple pictures I did on absolute black granite.

Damn, that's nice.

Thanks here are a few more, all on stone. If your engraving on stone remember that each stone as a different crystal structure, I found it easier to start off at a very low power and see the result and increase the power to get what you want. You can engrave on piece and then go to another and have completely different results. Also in Corel there is a Tone curve that is very useful to bring down the very bright areas of the picture so the laser will not bleach out the photo. You can do this also in Photograv under the gray scale balance. Here are few more pictures.

I have had an unbelievable luck with Photograv, you can purchase it from laserbits.com. I think its about $350 and works well with 8 bit grayscale. Here is a couple pictures I did on absolute black granite.

Veryyyyyy nice indeed..Incredible what one program can do and not that I am complaining but its just too much $ for me at this time unless perhaps some out there are getting out of the business?



regards,

Terry

Largohome, nice results you're getting. I purchased a large capacity laser, 55w using CorelDraw and Photograv, and was never happy with the results.

Thank you for your comments. There are a number of factors to get the results we are getting, first is the quality of the stone you are engraving, the closer the crystalline structure the better the etching, also some of this work you see is done in more than one file. On big images 2 foot or better I may do the face and skin of a person in a separate file (lower power setting), this means running the laser more than once over the stone your putting the image on. If the crystalline structure of the granite is tight (very small) you will need less power. I run my 60 watt co2 at 700 IMP with only 1.5 watt on the power on an average piece of stone. Very little power is required at slow speed of a big laser table. Second is to use corel or photograv to the max, I mean you have to understand the Photograv gray scale and line enhancement like the back of your hand to get perfect results. We are in the stone business, so I have been lucky to have many different products to work with and have experimented with them as it would be very costly for someone to purchase this product and experiment with it. On a new piece of stone the first thing to do is start out at a lowest power setting then increase to get the results you want. Do you still have your laser? I would be happy to show you if your ever in the area.

And to your quick reply. I still have my laser and from the looks of the settings you are using, I need some serious review our operating parameters. You're absolutely right on the software, you just don't scan and print and it's very expensive to experiment without good support. In the beginning, most of the parameters we received were documented from the companies 25w system. I know we purchased one of the first units with the 55w option and have always wondered if it was capable of the quality of etchings we saw from the demo.

Sounds like the settings you listed are for granite. Much slower and lower power than I've seen todate. Note that I've only used the high quality 12"x12" Black Marble and other random tiles of Marble, Granite and Slate purchased locally so again, limited test runs with less than acceptable results. Would appreciate any assistance and would a chance to view visit. Which area are you in?

We are located in Missouri, my phone number is 417-475-4075, but email is the best way to catch me. largohome@aol.com

Well surprise, so am I. I'll email you.

Thanks, Danr