Does that cause you to think that it might not be acting the way they thought it would? (chuckle!) 
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I think it might even be a little more complicated than this for some materials. The fact that (just for an easy hypothetical) 50% power at X mm/sec gets you 1/8" depth in some material doesn’t mean that 100% power at the same speed with get you 1/4" , or that 25% power at that speed will get you 1/16". (I know from playing with diode lasers, for example, that if you move the laser over a very thin wood surface slowly you get a through cut, if you move slightly faster you get a line of char, but if you more faster than that you don’t get any mark at all) So there might be a threshold percentage below which no engraving happens, and then the depth increases from the, but not exactly linearly.
Maybe multiple passes, may some kind of algebraic function.
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I figure it’s got to be a lot more complex than any of us suspect. 
(Otherwise we would probably have seen it already.)
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Depth is always less accurate on an absolute level than height or width, since material density can vary. It’s fairly predictable with acrylic, but not so much with natural woods, as mentioned.
If you want to engrave to a single depth, you don’t need to specify a color - just set it on the print preview page. If you’re 3d engraving, then and only then will black pixels be full depth, 50% grey be half that depth, 25% grey a quarter of that depth, etc.
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I should add this is for Proofgrade materials - we can’t estimate the proper power settings for a given depth with non-Proofgrade materials.
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That’s okay…the part that has me squeeeing is the ability to tell it to engrave at a roughly specific depth. (Necessary for mortise and tenon work.) 
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Can’t wait to see this in action!!!
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Thanks to all. I’m a laser newbie, so all of this detail, all of these factors to consider, is exactly what I was hoping to learn about. So glad the proofgrade materials will be newbie-friendly 
, and for the rest, if getting a specific depth is important, then I can play around with test pieces to find what works.
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So, the way I hear that is if you pick deep engrave, 50% gray goes in 50% of the deep engrave depth. If you pick shallow engrave, it’s 50% of a smaller depth? Or is there just one “engrave?”
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There’s two things:
- Single color engrave - you set the depth once.
- 3D engrave - you set the maximum depth. Black pixels are that depth, grey pixels are more shallow, white is left untouched.
You almost always want to use single color engraving as it’s easier to design for and offers very precise control. For example, if you have clip art, you can separately assign engrave settings to each color. But if you have a 3D design that you’ve converted to a heightmap, 3D engraving is the way to go.
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wonderful! So, that [single color engrave] makes doing inlays with veneers very easy when the base material is proofgrade - s w e e t 
and my little javascript app may come in useful for 3D engrave situations
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Exactly!
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Are there any 3D engraved examples?
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Haven’t seen one yet, but we’ve been told they’re coming along quite nicely recently. 
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I guess it depends on what you mean by 3d engraving, but there are a few examples on the website itself (easy to forget about, I suppose) from several months ago.
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That is a functionality that we have yet to see the demo on, but I am hoping in this week’s update that not only shipping dates will be announced, but also what functionality we will expect to see at release
This post is in no way meant to disrespect the Glowforge team, nor anyone dealing with the challenge of being patient and wanting so much more information! It is meant to be a light-hearted expression of my own desire to see some cool stamps made from variably engraved delrin or some other interesting example of the Glowforge magic.
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Just as long as you don’t threaten to burn the place down!
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