- Load your photo into a new Illustrator document sized with a 20" x 12" artboard.
(If you want to clean it up first you would need to do that in another program, but lets assume it’s a great photo with great contrast.)
Just drag the photo over from your desktop and drop it on the open Illustrator file.
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Select the picture by clicking on it, then click on the Embed icon in the top row.
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Drag out a rectangle around it to use as a cutting line. (No Fill Color, but give it a Stroke color.)
(The rectangle will be a vector line, and it will be interpreted as a Cut line.) -
Now you save the file as an SVG. When you do you need to click the Embed Image radio dial as explained in this tutorial:
- Final step…open the Glowforge app to the Dashboard, drag the SVG file over anywhere onto the Dashboard and let it go. The file will open up in the Glowforge interface ready to go, with a Photo engrave set up already, and a cutline around the image. Load your material and send it to print. The Glowforge interface will turn the photo into grayscale for you, using dithering in the Photo Engrave settings.
If you want to get fancier with it, instead of dragging out a rectangle for cutting, drag out an oval and place it over the photo wherever you want it. Then just save the SVG. The possibilities are endless, but starting simple is a good bet at first. The rest will come before you know it.