printing directly from photograv to laser?

[Robert E Miller]

I got my laser!! Now the fun begins. I thought you could print directly to the laser without going through lasercut 5.3
If that is true how do you set it up to work?

[Larry Bratton]

Photograv does not have the capability of printing directly. The file has to be saved, then imported into another program to send it to the laser. Most import into Corel Draw, assuming your Chinese machine supports it, otherwise you will have to import into whatever works with it. Remember, after processing in Photograv, do not resize it or do any further processing prior to sending to the laser.

[Gary Hair]

Remember, after processing in Photograv, do not resize it or do any further processing prior to sending to the laser.

That is a myth that needs to be busted... You can make any changes you want to the bitmap but you need to be aware of what the changes will do. The bitmap is created with the dots optimized for your spot size. Enlarging the image by scaling it will enlarge the dots and it may not turn out the same as it would have before you enlarged it. Same thing with reducing the size, the dots become smaller.

You can, however, remove any dot's you like and the image will still be just fine. In fact, it's much easier to edit some images after you have processed them in PhotoGrav because there isn't so much "clutter" distracting you from what you are trying to edit.

If you doubt this check with the fine folks at PhotoGrav, like I did, and they will tell you the same thing.

Gary

[Larry Bratton]

Well OK Gary, thanks for enlightening us. I say US because this has pretty much been everyone's advice to the forum in the past. I no longer use Photograv as I like the creativity of being able to prepare my photos without the aid of a canned program. However,I suppose it would be prudent to say that the processed Photograv image does not require any further manipulation as it supposedly has been optimized per the input laser specs (that is debatable).

[Doug Griffith]

If you increase the resolution (enlarge) or decrease the resolution (shrink) a B/W bitmap image the pixels that make up the image are modified by interpolating pixels that are next to each other. Black next to white equals gray and the resampling method will determine which way the pixel shifts. Picture a black pixel next to a white pixel next to a black pixel. Resampling will more often than not shift that white pixel to black. Now there is a very small black line. Do the same with the colors reversed and envision all the pixels in the image being affected that way. It gets ugly real quick. I, personally, would never resample a B/W bitmap image.

[Larry Bratton]

If you increase the resolution (enlarge) or decrease the resolution (shrink) a B/W bitmap image the pixels that make up the image are modified by interpolating pixels that are next to each other. Black next to white equals gray and the resampling method will determine which way the pixel shifts. Picture a black pixel next to a white pixel next to a black pixel. Resampling will more often than not shift that white pixel to black. Now there is a very small black line. Do the same with the colors reversed and envision all the pixels in the image being affected that way. It gets ugly real quick. I, personally, would never resample a B/W bitmap image.
So, with that being said, it is not a good idea to resize or further manipulate the B&W image. I agree, though, that sometimes it is advisable to closely examine the image prior to sending to the laser and check for any unwanted black pixels.

[Bill Cunningham]

You don't change the 'size' of the image, But like Gary said, you can, and I do it often, is open the image and remove crud and random pixels from the image left there by PG. I have also trimmed some areas, and added black or white to other areas. As long as the file remains a binary image after you save it, or simply cut and paste it back into corel you will have no problems with it.. I usually work in .bmp because I run the old version of PG, but .tif is fine.. Just don't save it as a 24, or 8 bit file.. it has to remain true black and white binary image.

[Peter Odell]

Robert I import it into Corel and then run it it works better than importing it into lasercut

[Robert E Miller]

Peter , I am interested in knowing how to get the driver setup to bypass lasercut and the proper steps.