Newbie question! Illustrations: Vary power vs convert to dots?

[deirdrebeth]

I did a straight up comparison a while ago, that might help you visualize the differences

SD Graphic Photo Engrave Comparison

I needed to do a fairly large photo engrave, and I only had one piece of material - so I went through all my defaults to compare before I picked one. Since I had photos I thought I’d share with all ya’ll. I generally find that SD Graphic Convert-to-Dots is the way to go for photos, but the preview for that always looks terrible so I doubt myself. Here’s the proof The first block is Convert to Dots (CtD), the second Convert to Patterns (CtP), and the third Vary Power (VP) [SD Preview] Clearly…