How I Prepare Photos for Engraving Using Photoshop

[nancyrich9781]

I bought your actions and they are amazing. Saved me hours of brooding over pictures for a friend’s Father who had died. Great results. Thank you!

[NiteowlsWife]

I know its not good ettiquette to revive an old post, but I had to ask this before buying your Photoshop settings. Will the settings ask me which substrate I am using AND the size? I have successfully edited a photo to put on acrylic that is 8" x 10", but the acrylic that I want to put it on is 5x6 (going in an led base). When I just drag it down to size in the GFUI it condenses the dots soo much that the light does not penetrate through the picture. After doing some research I came across resampling, this seemed to be the answer. So I resampled the original down to the size that I needed it, that just came out pixelated. Did not look good at all. So if I run a pic through the setting, will I be able to say “I want it made for acrylic that is 5x6”?

[jbmanning5]

It won’t ask you the substrate. There are different actions built in though for materials that need inverting, such as acrylic, slate, etc.

It will ask you for the size once it’s completed editing the image. The sharpening and resolution required is specific to the final engrave size.

You do need to crop it to the final aspect ratio at some point though, which I would recommend doing before the photo is edited. 8x10 to 5x6 doesn’t work without cropping the image.

[jason.wulff]

I downloaded your tool which is great, however I’m having difficulty with text that I need to have on the picture. The background of the picture is dark, so I’m trying to engrave around the text and leave the text area white. When I put white text in, glowforge is still trying to engrave them. Is there a way to merge the text with the image in photoshop?

[mrtoad]

would this work for images created using AI? I am assuming so but just was asking before I purchase the actions. Thank you!

[shop]

yes, it should work with any photo.

keep in mind, there’s still a “garbage in, garbage out” part of this equation. if your AI image doesn’t have good contrast to work with, it still may not engrave well. JB’s actions are a really good help and starting point, but you’re still potentially limited by the image you start with.

[evansd2]

AI generated images can definitely work. @shogun has done a lot with Midjourney and canvases.

Being smart about your prompting can really shortcut a lot of the preparation steps. Here he describes how he made a prompt to get a particular image:

From Prompt to canvas

I know I am probably being annoying about MidJourney, but wow this has changed my world creatively. I did about 10 or so iterations of stuff based on the prompt: “60’s psychedelic poster art, precise vector shapes, symmetrical, black and white, coloring book” and got back some wonderful things including this: [psychedelic13] So yeah, that’s going to canvas: [in progress] You can see the original paint layer at the top and the black canvas being revealed. Here’s the final image fresh from …

And some others:

New Canvas

A new canvas project 11 by 17 Started with a white canvas Applied 3 coats of Heavy Black Gesso 1 light coat of white spray paint Various colors applied with the skill and care of a sugar crazed toddler MidJourney Art Lasers Pew Pew Pew [IMG_9518]

And of course you can always search the forum for “magic canvas” which is Glowforge AI image generator. Lots of people have been using that, @rb and of course you can always search the form for magic canvas which is Glowforge AI image generator. Lots of people have been using that. @rbtdanforth in particular has been doing a bunch with it.

[rbtdanforth]

@evansd2

@rbtdanforth in particular has been doing a bunch with it

If I had been waiting for the perfect result or even a result similar to the day before, it never would happen. I might need to go a thousand tries to get something I can fix but it is not like it is copying anybody, as I doubt there are folks drawing a horse with two heads and seven legs. But I can remove the extra bits and get a decent result. You ask it for a cowbird one day and get this…

And a thousand images resembling it and try that another day and get this…

and a thousand things like that but never both styles at the same run, even with the exact same wording in both cases.

I use Gimp a lot to clean up any images I get from Magic Canvas, but that said I find it very helpful when I can get it to work.

[mrtoad]

Thank you for the replies. I will check the links. This is one of the images in question. Please excuse the fact that it is on a pillow in the photo. I am in bed and just getting to email and don’t have the original image on my phone. I have a set of 3 I am wanting to do and all are similar as they are all different dogs on spacesuits I created.

[trually]

that’s so cute! i have an Aussiedoodle so this resembles him (except different color).

[mrtoad]

Thank you. I had designed this with a friends dog in mind. I have done other’s with my dogs too (Boston Terriers).