How do I get a Gray Scale to Engrave

[Roy Haney]

I have a 60 watt engraver and want to engrave a gray scale.

I have the gray scale set as a gray scale.
I have the power set as 10 to 60%
When I engrave I get Black and white, What am I missing?

[Bill George]

Your missing a lot. The image either needs to be gray scale in your graphics program and exported as a bmg or a dithered B&W image. I don't think Chinese lasers can do gray scale, I may be wrong on that.

[alan corder]

You're right. Chinese lasers engrave bitmap only.

[Kev Williams]

Somewhere in your engraving software there should be a "dithering" option, that will change your grayscale to a halftone/dithered bitmap it can engrave.

In my program, the option is in a drop-down menu, and the icon on the bottom that's small black dots also works.
347841

When I click on it, I get a "dot size" to enter, which you have to experiment with for your best results.
Anyway, it changes my grayscale JPG a dithered bitmap.
The screen resolution of the bitmap in my program leaves a LOT to be desired
(yours too I'm sure, these programs are not Corel!) but you get the idea. Experiment to find a dot size that works best...
347842

[Mike Null]

What kind of machine do you have?