How to convert a photo to a laser engraving file (free, in your browser)

The most common question beginners ask: 'can I just drop a JPG into LightBurn and engrave it?' You can — but the result is often muddy, dark, or washed out. The photo needs processing before it becomes a good laser engraving. The good news is you can do all of it in your browser, free, without installing anything.

The three approaches to photo conversion

Not all photos get converted the same way. Which approach you use depends on what you want to engrave and which material you're using.

1. Rasterize (grayscale or dithered)

Rasterize keeps the photo as a pixel image but adjusts it so your laser can reproduce the tones. You control threshold (the cutoff between black and white), contrast, and output DPI. This is the right approach for portrait photos, pet photos, and any image where you want to preserve shading and midtones. Output is a PNG file you import directly into LightBurn or xTool Creative Space.

In LightBurn, set the image mode to Jarvis or Newsprint dithering for the best photo results on wood. On slate, use Threshold or Grayscale mode. The rasterize tool exports at your chosen DPI so you can match it to your engrave settings.

2. Vectorize (SVG silhouette)

Vectorize traces the outlines of your image and converts it to an SVG. This is the right approach for logos, clipart, simple illustrations, and any image that is mostly one or two colors. The output is a scalable SVG you can cut, score, or engrave at any size without pixelation.

Vectorize works best when there is strong contrast between the subject and background. A photo of a dog on a white background vectorizes cleanly. A landscape photo with gradients and complex colors will not vectorize well — rasterize is better for those.

3. Line art (pencil sketch or edge outline)

Line art conversion strips a photo down to its edges and outlines. The result looks like a pencil sketch or architectural drawing. This works well for portraits, buildings, vehicles, and any subject where a line drawing reads better than a filled silhouette. The output is a PNG you engrave in LightBurn at low power and high DPI.

Which format does your laser software need?

Settings to get right before you engrave

Whatever format you use, these three settings determine whether the engraving looks good:

DPI (dots per inch): this controls how dense the burn pattern is. 254 DPI is a good default for wood. 300 DPI for leather and slate. Going higher than 400 DPI on most diode lasers does not improve quality — the laser spot size becomes the limiting factor.

Threshold: when converting to black and white, the threshold decides which gray tones become black burns and which become white (unburned). Set it too high and the image looks washed out. Set it too low and everything goes dark. The rasterize tool lets you adjust this live and preview the result before you download.

Contrast: boosting contrast before converting sharpens the difference between light and dark areas of the image. For portrait photos, a contrast increase of 15-25% before converting usually improves the final result.

What makes a good source photo

The conversion tool can only work with what you give it. A blurry, low-resolution phone photo will produce a blurry engraving. For best results: use a photo where the subject is in sharp focus, the background is plain or has been removed, and the lighting is even without harsh shadows across the subject's face.

If the background is busy or similar in tone to the subject, use the background removal option in the vectorize tool. It uses AI to isolate the subject before conversion and usually produces a much cleaner silhouette.

File format summary