3D Engraving as Proofgrade Prints get Prettier

New Proofgrade presets

Part of the magic of your Glowforge is that you can print without the frustration and hazards of experimental materials and settings. Today, we’re introducing some new Proofgrade engraving presets to make your prints even better. These presets are designed for different kinds of artwork, so each design can show its best.

These are all under continuous development - we’d love your feedback for how they work. Expect more refinements and options to come!

Graphic

Use the Graphic setting for text, logos, or other images that have large areas of one color. It will give you crisp edges and maximum impact! Clip art, icons, and vector drawings are all great choices for the Graphic setting.

Our design team has worked to bring out the characteristics of each material - you’ll find that in addition to the regular Graphic, some natural materials have other tones, like the Dark Graphic setting, and acrylics will give you a Deep option.

You’ll have best results with text that’s 10pt and above and lines that are 0.01” (0.25mm) or thicker. We recommend converting your image to grayscale using your favorite image editor, then making sure that anything you want to see clearly is medium to dark gray (at least 20%, and more than 40% is recommended).

Photo

The key to great photo engravings is your photo editor. You want lots of contrast and liberal use of the “sharpen” effect! If you’re printing on clear or translucent acrylic, you may want to mirror the image (so you can view it from the opposite side) and invert the colors for the best effect.

Once you’ve done that, though, the “photo” setting will get you the rest of the way there. It’s terrific for making family photos permanent, especially on Proofgrade hardwoods, plywoods, and Draftboard.

3D Engrave

It’s finally here! One of the amazing things you can do with your Glowforge is engrave shapes with real depth and detail. You can’t use a regular image for this - you have to use an image that’s been specially created for 3D engraving called a Heightmap. A Heightmap is like a grayscale picture, except that the darker a spot on the picture is, the deeper it will engrave.

Proofgrade hardwoods, acrylics, and Draftboard all support 3D engraving. Thick materials have a second option, “Deep 3D Engrave”, that uses a second pass of the laser to achieve maximum depth.

We can’t wait to see what you’ll do with this!

High Quality Score

High Quality Score setting gives you a clear, consistent line to maximize the visual effect of your artwork.

Draft Score

Use this option when you’re prototyping - the Draft score setting is faster, but it’s lighter in the middle and creates dark spots on corners.

One last note: These new settings will replace the old settings -- but don’t worry, the existing ones will be there for at least a week, and labeled with “(Expiring Soon)”. That way, if you’re in the middle of a project and want to preserve the ones you’re using for later, you can click the arrow at the top of the Proofgrade Engrave or Proofgrade Score menu, then click “Manual” to see the underlying settings & write them down.

Decreasing veneer prices

Prices in the shop vary over the course of time and we usually don’t announce it, but we did want to mention that after working with our supplier, we managed to get rid of the $1 price increase for finished veneer. It’s so attractive and useful (for everything from stickers to wall decor), we think you’ll love it!

Referral code

Our referral program is going strong, and owners are scooping up new referrals every day. A few of you asked if we could make it easier to share. You got it! We got the domain “glowforge.us” just for you. You can see your new, shorter “.us” referral code here:

https://glowforge.com/referrals

Enjoy!