If the result is too light, too dark or hard to read, change one setting at a time, on an offcut of the same material as the final piece. The virtual laser shows the path, but it can’t know how your wood, acrylic or metal will react to the beam.
Before you change the numbers
- Does the machine you chose have your laser module’s power?
- Is the focus right, on the piece’s surface?
- Are the thickness, colour and finish the ones you tested on?
- Does the preview show every pass you wanted, and nothing else?
Half of all quality problems are solved here, without touching speed and power.
Too light or too dark
Open the image’s or the operation’s parameters. For a stronger mark, lower the speed or raise the power; to lighten it, the opposite. The quickest way to find the right numbers is a test grid on the real material: pick the best square and save its values as a material of your own. Don’t copy a power from another laser: the same number burns differently.
Check an image’s passes too: repeating it makes it darker, but each extra pass costs its full time. And if you are engraving a photo with Reliable mode on, turn it off unless the connection really needs it: one line at a time makes the midtones lighter.
The photo loses detail
In the image’s parameters, compare the original with the preview at the real size. Try the three modes, Dithering, Grayscale (S-value) and Threshold (B&W), and more than one dithering algorithm: Atkinson, for one, fires fewer dots, and on a slow machine the job takes far less time. Move brightness and contrast in small steps.
A detail finer than the resolution won’t come back by raising the power: raise the resolution, or make the image bigger.
If it is a QR code or barcode that won’t scan, open its panel: check the verdict, make it wider or raise the resolution, and keep the margin around it clear.
The cut doesn’t go through, or the piece is the wrong size
- Is the outline on a cut operation, and is the cutting part on next to RUN?
- Are the focus and the power enough for that thickness? Several passes cut better than one slow one.
- If the piece comes out smaller and the holes bigger, set the operation’s KERF, measured from a test cut.
- If everything comes out a little too small or too large, engravings included, by the same amount every time, calibrate the axes.
- If bits stay attached at regular intervals, those are the TABS: that is their job.
The job is shifted or distorted
If the engraving lands in the wrong place, check the origin and Show Frame on the real piece again. If the design comes out squashed or stretched on a cylinder, check the rotary setup and the object’s diameter. If the machine lost its position mid-job, look at the log in the console and fix the cause before making the piece again.
One change at a time. If you change speed, power and focus together and the result improves, you won’t know which one did it. Write down what you change and on which offcut: next time, start from there.