How to prepare a photo for CO2 laser engraving on wood using CorelDRAW? robado

How to prepare a photo for CO2 laser engraving on wood using CorelDRAW? robado

  1. Download the Wood Photo Engraving Macro for CorelDRAW, then unzip the file and follow the instructions for installation.
  2. Open the photo for laser engraving on wood in CorelDRAW, change the size and crop the photo to the final size you are going to engrave.
Note: It’s very important not to change the size of your photo once you convert the photo to a Black and White 1-bit photo in the final step of this process.

Example:




3. Export and select your photo in CorelDRAW. Open the Resampling Palette from the drop down menu.



4. In the Resample Palette, change the DPI to 600, and then click OK. 



5. There are 4 different CorelDRAW effects/filters you will apply to the photo: Gamma, Unsharp Mask, Sharpen and Convert to Black & White (1-bit) with Halftone Dither.
  1. Gamma Adjustment Filter: it allows you to reveal detail in the low-contrasting areas of a photo.
Start by opening the Gamma adjustment palette. Select Effects/Adjust/Gamma from the drop-down menu.



In the Gamma Palette enter the value 3.5, and then click OK. This will brighten every value in the photo and bring out detail in the dark or shadowed areas. 
    


Results:


  1. Unsharp Mask Filter: This filter accentuates edge detail and focus blurred areas in the photo without removing low-frequency areas. Low-frequency areas are the areas in a photo with subtle or smooth tonal changes - a good example is a portrait photo.
Select Bitmaps/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask from the drop-down menu, to open the Unsharp Maskpalette.




In the Unsharp Mask palette enter these values Percentage 500, Radius 20, and Threshold 6, and then click OK. 



Results:



  1. Sharpening: The Sharpen filter accentuates the edges of the photo by focusing on blurred areas and increasing the contrast between neighboring pixels. The result creates greater contrasted edges in the photo.
Open the Sharpening palette by selecting Bitmaps/Sharpen/Sharpen from the drop-down menu.



In the Sharpen filter palette enter these values, Edge Level (%) 100, check the box for Preserve Colors, and Threshold 70, and then click OK. 




Convert to Black & White (1-bit) Photo (Halftone Dither): When a photo is converted to a Black and White photo, each pixel in the photo is either converted to black or white. There are different types of dithering patterns applied to black and white photos: Halftone, Line Art, Ordered, Jarvis, Stucki, Floyd-Steinberg, and Cardinality-Distribution. When engraving a photograph on wood, a Halftone dither works best. A Halftone dither tricks the eye into seeing different shades of gray by varying the pattern and density of black and white pixels in a photo. When applying a Halftone dither, we are able to vary the screen type, angle for the halftone, lines per unit, and the unit of measure.

Open the Convert to 1 Bit palette by selecting Bitmaps/Mode/Black and White (1-bit) from the drop-down menu.



With the Black and White palette open, select Halftone for the Conversion Method, select Line as theScreen type, enter 0 degrees, and 100 lines per inch, and then click OK.



Results:


Now you are ready to start engraving:
  1. Speed 60%
  2. Power 100%
  3. 600 DPI
  4. Dithering: Jarvis

    Final Engraving:








    • Related Articles

    • Engraving and Cutting Acrylic material / Daniel

      Acrylic is produced in two basic versions, , cast (GS) and extruded (XT). The different production methods used to create these materials leave the finished product with different material properties.    . Cast acrylic is produced by mixing the ...

    • Como Instalar el plugin de Corel Draw para RDWorks / Daniel

      Lo primero que se debe hacer  es abrir Corel DRAW y seguir los siguientes pasos   1.  Clic en herramientas y luego en opciones y “CorelDRAW”   2. En opciones de Corel DRAW  seleccione la opción VBA y en la opción de seguridad cambiar el nivel de ...

    • Succesful cut in both directions - Fiber Laser / David

      Sometimes, the fiber laser can not cut in both directions, what does this problem mean? It means that the Fiber Laser can cut to the right but not to the left. For example:  Image 1. Succesful cut to the right Image 2. Unsuccessful cut to the left ...

    • ¿Qué hacer si no hay salida láser del tubo? / Daniel

      ¿Qué hacer si no hay salida láser del tubo? En el siguiente video puede ver el procedimiento para revisar si no hay salida láser en el tubo https://youtu.be/ISZg6fgLD6U 1- revise que el chiller (refrigerador) esté encendido sin alarmas 2. revise el ...

    • How to install the CorelDraw plugin for RDWorks / Daniel

      The first thing to do is open Corel DRAW and follow the steps below 1. Click on tools and then on options and “CorelDRAW” 2. In Corel DRAW options select the VBA option and in the security option change the security level to medium 3. Close the Corel ...