Hi! I’m looking for help on how to vectorize an image in Photoshop that works within the Glowforge app. I saw a post on here from 2018 but since I know Photoshop has changed since then, I wanted to post the question one more time. I’ve followed steps on Adobe’s website to convert to a vector but when I bring that into Glowforge, it doesn’t recognize it as such. Has anyone been able to do this successfully?
What exactly are you trying to make? Because Photoshop’s vector capabilities are extremely limited - like you can create simple cutouts but won’t be able to make different vector colors to separate steps.
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ok - and I’m also still so new to using my machine that I’m not all that familiar with the different steps.
Letters are one, but it is not a font. As in, I can’t just load it into another software. I have scanned hand writing and want to cut out the blocky letters. That one I think I’ve figured out using Inkscape.
Otherwise, I haven’t decided what specifically I want to make quite yet, but I am an artist with a small business that digitally or screen prints drawings on things (cards, tea towels, stickers, etc.) and I’m interested in using my machine to cut out some of my shapes. So, they would be scanned drawings.
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Great choice for vectors.
Changing the color will create a separate step in the side bar on the left. The steps will go sequentially from the top to the bottom, and you can drag them to rearrange the order.
Welcome to the forum!
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Thank you for the information! Excited to be here 
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Read this article: Exporting Assets: SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) | Free Photoshop Tutorial
And then…since you have Photoshop do you also have Illustrator? (via Creative Cloud)
Out of the Adobe products, Illustrator is the one built native vector artwork and best suited to GF work. To vectorize scanned drawings in Illustrator you would use the Live Trace tool and then expand the result to modify to your liking.
I haven’t used Illustrator since college (which, to be clear, was many moons ago) so have not signed up for it in the cloud. It sounds like it might make sense to get it again. Thank you for your feedback, everyone! I’m a portrait photographer by trade so Photoshop is second nature, which is why I was hoping to be able to utilize it. However this conversation and everything I was reading yesterday has reminded me of the biggest difference between PS and IL.
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Also look for the Glowforge Palettes for photoshop and Inkscape. the best way to be able to order the steps.
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