Photo engraving test card from your own photo, free
Free and in your browser, with nothing uploaded: choose a square of your photo and get a card at real size with one column per dither and one row per tone step, every cell labelled. Burn it on scrap, pick the best cell, and open the converter with those settings.
Stays on this computer · no signup · no watermark
Faster with the free Chrome extension: right-click any picture on a website and send it straight to the photo engraving test card. Add to Chrome · what it does
Extension installed. Right-click any picture on a website and choose Makerfern → Open this picture in… to bring it here.
Test the dither on the photo you are engraving
Which dither and how much to lift the mid-tones are the questions every photo engraving starts with, and the answer changes with the wood, the laser and the photo. Comparisons online use their own sample pictures. This card uses yours: the square you choose, engraved once per dither and once per tone step, at the size and dpi you will burn, with the dither name over each column and the setting beside each row.
What you get
- A PNG at your laser's dpi, every pixel one dot, with the labels burned in and the dpi written into the file.
- An SVG frame: an outline around each cell and the labels as shapes, lined up with the PNG.
- The card's settings on the card: the dpi and cell size on the first line, the settings every cell shares on the second.
- One click to the converter with the settings of the cell you picked.
How to use it
- Drop your photo and move the square onto the part that matters most.
- Pick your material, dpi and cell size, and what changes down the rows.
- Download the PNG and burn it on a scrap of the same material, at the speed and power you will use.
- Click the best-looking cell on the screen and open the photo to laser engraving converter with its settings.
What it does not do
- It does not test speed and power: keep those the same across the card and set them in your laser software.
- The material starting points are ours, not a material maker's.
- It does not carry your photo to the converter: drop it there again.
Questions
Which dither is best for laser engraving a photo?
It depends on the material, the laser and the photo, which is why this card exists. Jarvis and Stucki are smooth and suit most wood; Floyd–Steinberg is finer and busier; Atkinson is lighter and crisper but loses some shadow; the ordered grid gives an even texture that can suit metal; threshold is black and white only. Burn the card on a scrap of your material and judge with your own eyes, not from a screen.
Why test on my own photo instead of a sample?
Skin, fur and sky each break up differently. A dither that looks best on someone else's sample can turn your subject's face blotchy. Pick the part of your photo that matters most, such as the face, and the card shows how that part burns.
What do the rows change?
One setting, in steps either side of where you start: mid-tones by default, or contrast or brightness. Everything else stays as you set it and is burned on the card's second line, so the piece of scrap records what made it.
How do I burn the card?
Import the PNG at 100% and set your laser software to its pass-through mode (or no dither), with the same line interval or dpi as the card's title line, so it burns dot for dot. Use the speed and power you plan to use for the real piece. A Greyscale column, if you add one, needs the software's greyscale mode instead, so burn it on its own.
What is the SVG for?
It has a thin outline around every cell and the same labels as filled shapes, at the card's size, lined up with the PNG when both sit at the same top-left corner. Use it to score the cell edges, or untick "Labels in the PNG" and engrave the labels from the SVG instead.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The photo is read and the card is made in your browser, and the files are saved from memory on your device.