What great work! We aren’t satisfied with the photo PG defaults either, and are working on more improvements.
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THANK YOU so much! This was exactly the information I was looking for. Again, TY!
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You are welcome. Please share your findings/results - especially if you are engraving on any other materials.
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Wonderful info. Thanks for doing all the research and providing it in a standard manner.
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You’re most welcome. I’m glad you find it useful.
Thank you so much for putting these settings out ther and for all of those who added to them in the comments! This is my first attempt at a picture, did it on med maple ply scrap before I put it on the final piece. I think the settings turned out great! Thanks again!
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Hi kathy. I am glad that the information was useful. Your engraving came out great!
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What improvements were you guys able to come up with and implement in the last 2 years for the photo pg defaults? I curious as I’ve found that the majority of the PG defaults (especially the cuts) are far off mark and dont actually cut. I was hoping to get some insight into the improvements made in engraves?
If this is the case you should be opening a ticket with support and posting pictures - the PG should (and does for the majority of machines) cut/engrave/score perfectly every time. People have found that if they let their machines get dirty they sometimes have to lower the speed or raise the power slightly to address it - but those are heavy users.
If you want to read about all the improvements you can do a search for Dan’s tag’s and “Discussion of” in the Everything Else category (Search results for '@dan #everything-else "discussion of" order:latest_topic' - Glowforge Owners Forum) you’ll have hours of great reading ahead of you! Sadly AFAIK you can’t sort from oldest topic so you’ll either have to scroll down until it stops filling, or request it to only show you ones from 2017 first, then 18, etc.
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If you want the best “unretouched” photo engraves, I find the Draft Photo setting to give the best results.
If you want to take it a step further and get really professional looking results, it can require making a few quick tweaks to the photo for contrast first. Glowforge has a guide for doing that here for Photoshop and here for GIMP.
(And there are simple plugins for sale that are used by the Pros to prep their photos in Photoshop. Fabulous results…just send a PM to @jbmanning5 and ask about it. I bought it, and I love it.)
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Thanks for the reply, I was asking @dan though. It seems as if there are so many posts where a user asks a specific question, to a specific person and another hops in an answers it rather broadly than specifically. I’m NOT just referring to you, just something I’ve noticed while reading a lot of posts. I appreciate the reading material though 
Thanks for the info. I actually have @jbmanning5 actions and I TOTALLY love them. I never got any good results from the presets even when my machine was fresh out of the box, purchasing the extra software and actions was a ridiculous improvement!!! Amazing processing and simplicity!
Side note: Hey @jbmanning5 we normally interact on facebook, Ididn’t even realize, although I SHOULD have realized you were over here!
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Dan isn’t here as a general rule. (The post you linked to was made in 2017).
If you want a timely answer, in general, you’ll get it from one of the regulars who hang around here long before you hear back from Dan. If he even sees it. The Beyond the Manual section is for the customers, and he might occasionally drop a comment, but he doesn’t read everything here. 
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Just a different data point… I’m pretty anal about keeping my unit clean. I thoroughly cleaned it and immediately engraved 24 beer tap handles. Only about 2 hours worth of engraving. It would not cut through medium PG ply afterward. The laser lens was badly coated from 2 hours of use. Cleaned it and cuts like a dream. So doesn’t take much use to need cleaning.
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When I do silicone rubber gaskets for an aerospace client, I need to clean it after every sheet of 6 gaskets (6"x3"x2mm). Doesn’t matter if I’m using black or clear silicone rubber sheets.
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You’re requesting the CEO of a company to answer a direct question that can be answered if you take the time to do research. The likelihood is very small. You can always send a private message to hello@glowforge.com or send him a message via the forum as opposed to a random post. The chances are still tiny, but certainly more likely than posting here.
“Just email and we’ll get right back to you. Finally, if you’re curious what our voicemail message sounds like, you can find out at + 1 (855) 338-2122”
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Exactly. I know the chances are tiny. But, the CEO is better than us? You are pretty defensive on Dan’s behalf. It was a request for information, not a demand. I know it’ll never get answered. Who cares who I tag and when? lol. IT’S JUST A TAG. Dude, it’s not that serious. Take a deeeeep breath. Dan is a big boy, if he sees the tag, cool. If not, that’s cool too. I just don’t understand YOUR need to reply to me about tagging Dan. He’s not a god. He’s a CEO. It’s all good man. You do you. I’ll do me. Have a good one man.
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i think her comment was in light of your earlier response, where you kind of hammered someone else for answering because you specifically tagged dan and, i guess (???), only wanted to hear his answer.
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I realize that, and thank you for not replying to me like I’m an idiot. :)
I realize that @dan the man won’t see it or reply to it. But it’s whatever. It’s the members that make a community great, and not being condescending is a good approach, so thanks for that. I was looking through a bunch of different posts from 2017 and Dan was replying to about 50% of them, I realize this is no longer 2017 and he was much more active then than now. It’s all good. I’ve had more help than I ever dreamed from members like @jbmanning5 and others from facebook groups than I’d ever imagined. I just have a bitter taste in my mouth with spending $5,000 for an item and it was antiquated the day it was delivered (doesnt recieve 5 Ghz wifi, no LAN port, no USB port, bed size marketed as 20x12, but reading more shows smaller) I’ve had lots of cool things that I’ve made and I’ve learned an incredible amount of things, I just expect more I guess. Chat support I hear is getting better, I even heard a user getting a phone call from support within 5 hours of submitting his issue.
I also realize ALL of my post is off topic from the main thread, but it started as a question to Dan about photo engrave and devolved into this with the assistance of another users condescension, but it’s cool, I’m out!.. Yall have a good one. I don’t forsee myself coming back to this forum for any type of interaction at all. Meh. Peace and love all