Mastering Photographic Engraving on Wood: Dithering and DPI
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The Challenge of Grayscale on Wood
Because wood burns instead of displaying true grayscale, reproducing photos requires a technique called dithering (converting gradients into patterns of dots).
Optimization Steps
1. Material Selection: Use a fine-grained, light wood like Baltic Birch. 2. Image Prep: In Photoshop, convert the image to Grayscale, increase contrast, and adjust the gamma. 3. Software Settings: In LightBurn, set the image mode to 'Jarvis' or 'Stucki' dithering. Match your DPI (Dots Per Inch) to the material: 254 DPI (0.1mm interval) is usually the sweet spot for birch. Avoid exceeding 300 DPI, which can cause over-burning and loss of detail.
🔧 Related tool: Laser Image Prep Tool