Features

The Power Tool for Laser Engraving Photographs!

PhotoGraV has been designed specifically for Laser Engravers.

The objective of the program is to efficiently process digital photographs so that they can be engraved on a variety of common materials with confidence that the engraved photographs will be of superb quality.

Traditionally, the engraving of photographs has been difficult and has been a hit or miss endeavor resulting in many discarded products. The process has been so difficult and time consuming, in fact, that many engraving shops simply do not offer engraved photographs as one of their products.

Easy To Use

Step 1

Scan image as windows bitmap

Step 2

Open the image in PhotoGraV

Step 3

Choose the material type you will be engraving

Step 4

Select the Final Process button.

The next thing you see on your computer monitor is a simulation of what the image will look like when it is actually engraved on the material you have chosen.

Now reduce the time & effort when engraving photographs!

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Automated

Automated application of these tools to the subject photo.

Simulation

Simulation of the engraving process for common materials so the “engraved product” can be inspected before it is actually engraved.

Interactive

Interactive process with adjustable enhancements and real-time visual feedback.

Reports

Reports and color proofs for customer approval and reference.

User Defined

User defined parameter sets can be saved for further customization.

Calibrated

Calibrated to most laser engraving equipment and common materials.

Color Clipart

Color Clipart from CorelDraw can be easily engraved by processing with PhotoGraV.

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Simulations

PhotoGraV simulates more than 20 engraving materials including: cherry and walnut wood; clear and black-painted acrylic; black laser brass and anodized aluminum; a variety of generic leather materials; and many plastics with either a white or black core and with a variety of caps including brushed gold and most solid colors.

PhotoGraV's processing functions have been tuned and optimized for each of these materials and the appropriate optimized parameters are automatically loaded whenever a new material is selected.

Note: Actual results may vary from simulation.

Negative image produced in saved file.

PhotoGraV automatically compensates for the engraving peculiarities of each material in the process of creating the "engraver-ready" processed image. For example, photos to be engraved on clear acrylic are automatically mirror-imaged and produced at a "negative" polarity. Of course, you can override these automatic features at any time to produce special effects if so desired.

- PhotoGraV engraving simulation on black brass.
  The engraving simulation is one of the many powerful features of PhotoGraV that enables you to inspect the "engraved product" before it is actually engraved. Shown below is the engraving simulation as you would see it in the PhotoGraV software.
- PhotoGraV Comparison on black brass.
  As you can see, the real engraving shown below matches closely the PhotoGraV simulation. Before PhotoGraV, you could not inspect the final product without actually engraving it, a costly and time consuming process. Further, without PhotoGraV's simulation capability, the effect on the final engraving of any adjustments to the image are difficult to predict. Simulation is a powerful tool that saves you valuable time and materials.
- PhotoGraV engraving simulation
  The engraving simulation is one of the many powerful features of PhotoGraV that enables you to inspect the "engraved product" before it is actually engraved. Shown below is the engraving simulation as you would see it in the PhotoGraV software. Example: Cherry Engraving Simulation Image
- PhotoGraV Comparison on cherry plaque.
  As you can see, the real engraving shown below matches closely the PhotoGraV simulation. Before PhotoGraV, you could not inspect the final product without actually engraving it, a costly and time consuming process. Further, without PhotoGraV's simulation capability, the effect on the final engraving of any adjustments to the image are difficult to predict. Simulation is a powerful tool that saves you valuable time and materials.
- CorelDraw color clip art and PhotoGraV
  Laser engraving the clip art from the CorelDraw collection 'as is' produces less than desirable results, many times engravings are totally unacceptable. A few simple steps and processing with PhotoGraV will yield spectacular results. Now you can offer any of the thousands of Corel images to your customers with confidence that the final engraving will be wonderful, and you will not have to spend hours tweaking the art and possibly scraping materials. If you have tried lasering some of the Corel art, you may be aware of some of the problems; 'hidden' lines vector cutting in surprising areas, poor contrast in different colored areas, poorly defined edges, loss of detail, coarse dithering, funny checked patterns, unpredictable shading and depth, etc. PhotoGraV solves all these problems and more.

FAQ

PhotoGraV provides a significant number of advantages over general purpose graphics programs for laser engraving photographs:

PhotoGraV's simulation capability provides a way for you to inspect the appearance of the final product before you actually engrave it. Further, PhotoGraV's interactive mode allows you to adjust any of PhotoGraV's processing parameters and to see the resultant effect on the simulated engraving in near real time (a second or two). PhotoGraV's simulated engraving is not merely an overlay of the input photo on a simulated engraving material but rather is produced by a Power/Lens model using the actual binary image that you would eventually send to your engraver.
PhotoGraV provides a diffusion dithering process that has been designed specifically for laser engraving. Further, the density of the diffusion dithering is user-adjustable and has been optimally pre-tuned for the engraving materials supported by PhotoGraV. The adjustable density of the diffusion dithering is in addition to the more standard grayshade adjustments that are also provided by PhotoGraV. Other common halftone patterns are also provided by PhotoGraV in a user-adjustable form but, for most images and materials, these "standard" halftones are not nearly as powerful as the adjustable diffusion dithering.
Although the following two functions are provided by other graphics programs, only PhotoGraV allows you to adjust the functions' parameters and see the effect on the simulated engraving in near real time.
- PhotoGraV automatically "stretches" an image's grayshades over the entire grayshade range but also provides user-controlled adjustment of clipping and gamma parameters and histogram equalization in the interactive mode.
- PhotoGraV applies a simultaneous smoothing and edge strengthening to the image. Parameters controlling this process are user-adjustable in the interactive mode.
PhotoGraV combines the enhanced image with the dithered image before thresholding the result. In interactive mode, the relative image weights and thresholding parameters are totally user adjustable. To our knowledge, PhotoGraV is the only graphics program that combines the adjustable error-diffused image with the enhanced image before thresholding the result.
For automatic processing, all of PhotoGraV's parameters have been tuned and optimized for each of the engraving materials supported by PhotoGraV. In addition, PhotoGraV recognizes the specific engraving characteristics of each material and processes the input photo according to the "normal" manner in which the material is used. For example, if a photo is to be engraved on acrylic, the processed image is automatically produced in a "negative" polarity and is flipped left-to-right. These preset parameters and characteristics can be modified at any time in the interactive mode.
User-defined parameters, specified in interactive mode, can be saved as named parameter sets on disk and efficiently applied to future engraving projects of a similar nature.
The simulated engraving can be printed from within PhotoGraV or can be saved to disk for use in desktop publishing or graphics programs such as CorelDraw. Simulation prints are very useful as customer proofs or as archival reference material.
Printed "PhotoGraV Reports" provide a complete record of the PhotoGraV session including all processing parameter values, image names, the engraving material, any named parameter set that is used, and all PhotoGraV processing times and estimates.

In summary, compared to general-purpose graphics programs, PhotoGraV has been designed specifically for laser engraving photographs and consequently results in a much more efficient and reliable process than that obtainable by the general-purpose programs.