There used to be Floyd Steinberg and other settings for engraving images. Now there’s only “Convert to Dots” “Convert to Pattern” and “Vary Power”. I can’t seem to get any of these to give me the same results when engraving onto granite that I was able to achieve just a few days ago.
Is there any way to get these settings back? Please help as I have some jobs that I need to finish this weekend!
I don’t know what the staff is going to say but I will point out that if there is a dithering treatment that you really like you can usually find it in a program like Inkscape or such and apply it before submitting it to the GFUI.
Yeah, I know how to do it before importing to GF. However the actual settings and output has changed greatly over the last few days.
But then you’re applying a dither to a dither when the GFUI’s engraves take over no?
I’m not 100% sure, but I think they just changed the names to make them more relevant to people who don’t know what dithering is.
I think “Convert to Dots” is the Floyd-Steinberg and “Convert to Pattern” is the ordered dither.
I thought “convert to dots” was the new name for the old F-S. I didn’t really get a chance to use the old settings before the UI was updated, so I can’t say personally whether the capabilities have improved or been reduced. It seems that to own a Glowforge is to get used to suddenly having to learn new settings, which is kind of a bummer if you’ve spent a bunch of time experimenting to dial everything in just right.
But then you’re applying a dither to a dither when the GFUI’s engraves take over no?
Yeah, honestly it does not look good. Very annoyed that it’s changed so much 
I would think it would be additive and no good would come from that. If I pre-treated a photo I’d not add any type in the GFUI. One big advantage of doing it beforehand it that some packages give you a lot of artistic elbow room so to speak.
I’m of two minds on this. On the one hand, they need to work things out, but on the other, yeah, it can be a pain and I’ll be glad when things don’t change as often or as much.
I believe the “Convert to Dots” is still the Floyd Steinberg dithering algorithm.
FWIW, the Photoshop diffusion dithering is a Floyd Steinberg variation, that is widely considered better than the original. Of course, I’m sure that’s up to interpretation.
The other thing I’ve noticed lately is that the “Preparing your Design” step takes far longer that it used to… anybody else seen this?
Having been on the other side of support needs, presenting multiple issues in one request isn’t always the best thing. Might I suggest you start a new thread for that?
seems like it would be less annoying if they had more comprehensive notes about what just changed. if the convert to dots is what FS used to be, a single bullet point in some update notes would make a big difference.
Obviously FS was too technical so they had to dumb it down and obscure it like every other feature until nobody knows what it does exactly.
Pehaps a little more detail here would have been helpful to existing users.
Thanks for that link! I didn’t know they had a feed for this stuff.
Joe is correct - just the name changed.