I’m trying to upload a picture to engrave and it has been uploading for at least 15 minutes at this point in time. The image size is almost 18mb which I’m guessing is the problem because it is so large. It is a photo from a professional photographer. I’ve uploaded pictures I got from Facebook that went much faster but they are much smaller in size. Should I try and make the file smaller or what would be best to get these to upload faster but still have good quality image.
Yes. Having enough detail for manipulations and huge images is a lot more than something like wood where the possible levels of detail is very much smaller. Easy to go to less detail but hard to go to more, that is why they tend to transfer as more.
Yes, make the file smaller.
Note that an image direct from a camera is unlikely to give good results when engraving on the Glowforge. You need to edit it to adjust brightness levels/contrast. There are plenty of tutorials posted here (some in the support pages linked above, also look in the Tips and Tricks section.)
I changed it to black and white in Inkscape. What is the best thing to search for to find a tutorial for Inkscape?
There are quite a few good ones here.
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You will want to get to know Gimp for manipulating raster files. Inkscape has few tools for this and they are wonky as it often tries process the image without manipulating the original, while Gimp os a full fledged photo editor.
I’m sorry you ran into trouble when trying to upload a photo. It looks like you’ve already received some excellent information from our other community members. Thanks folks!
Did the advice they provided point you in the right direction?
Yes the advice from the replies helped. I was able to load the picture in less than a minute with it being 7mb.
I’m glad you resolved it! I’m going to close this thread. If you run into any other trouble, please start a new topic, or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!