L-SOLUTION 100 Ex Fibre machine
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First contact
Speed optimization
It is advantageous to engrave an object in its longest direction because total engraving time will be reduced when the
motion system has to make fewer stops and starts.
If the engraving object is longer than it is tall, a greater engraving speed can be achieved by rotating the graphic 90
degrees and placing the material in the LASER system sideways. Be aware that some graphics programs do not support
the rotation of bitmaps. In this case, it may be necessary to use bitmap image processing software to first rotate the
bitmap before importing the bitmap into the graphics program.
If the artwork contains engraved objects of the same color with a great deal of space between them in the engraving
direction, processing time can be longer since the LASER must make long strokes to engrave both objects at the same
time. To reduce engraving time in cases like these, use different colors for each of the objects but assign the same power
setting to both colors.
This will cause the LASER to engrave one object at a time, skipping over all blank space, which in many cases will reduce
engraving time. On the other hand, if the objects are relatively close together in the engraving direction, then leave them
the same color because it will be quicker to engrave them both at the same time.
Experiment with these techniques to optimize the engraving speed.
Bitmapped / scanned images
There are primarily three types of bitmaps available. They are monochrome (black and white), grayscale, and color.
Bitmaps are patterns of dots (pixels) blended to form pictures. Scanning artwork into a computer through a scanner
creates most bitmaps. Others are created by drawing them in a bitmap image processing program. The LASER system
can print all three types of bitmaps providing that either the driver or the bitmap image processing program converts the
grayscale and/or color bitmaps into a monochrome bitmap. Essentially, the LASER system is a monochromatic printer,
either it fires the beam to burn a dot or it does not fire the beam to leave an empty dot on the material.
There are several different bitmap storage formats available: TIF, BMP, PCX, and others. We prefer to use the TIFF format
because it is most widely used format. The format makes no difference to the LASER system. The difference in formats
involves how they are stored on your computer’s hard disk. Bitmaps cannot be edited in most graphics software. Some
basic functions such as cropping, scaling, or mirroring might be possible but it is usually necessary to use a bitmap image
processing software to perform a dot by dot editing, rotation, or scaling of the bitmap.
Monochrome Bitmaps
If you scan the image in monochrome (black and white) mode, set your scanner to at least 600 DPI. The higher the DPI,
the smoother the image will be. Scanning monochrome images at 300 DPI is the minimum recommended resolution but
scanning them at 600 DPI will provide a significant improvement in the image quality.
Clean it up in your bitmap image processing program and save it to your hard disk.
You can now either print the image directly from your bitmap image processing program, or import the bitmap into a
graphics program and print it from there. Monochrome bitmaps are engraved in the same manner as black filled text.
The black area will turn the LASER on and the white area turns the LASER off.
Grayscale Bitmaps
When scanning image in the grayscale mode, you should scan the image at no more than 300 DPI. Scanning at a higher
DPI does not improve image quality but it consumes more memory and will take longer to print. Grayscale images cannot
be printed directly to the LASER system. Since the LASER system actually works like a black and white printer, grayscale
images must be converted into a black and white images. To do this, either the driver will do it automatically or you can
convert the grayscale image to a black and white image in your bitmap image processing program.
Image conversion techniques into shades of grey are selected in the drive under Graphic. Please refer to the section of
the printing drive for more information on how to set this parameter.
Since the driver has a fixed method of conversion, you may want to experiment by using your bitmap image processing
program to make the conversion. These software programs usually have more options for controlling the size, angle,
shape, and the amount of black and white dots (pixels) created when converting the image. Experiment with all of the
controls to see which looks the best. Big dots look good on some materials and small dots look better on others.
Once the image is converted by your program, save it and either print it directly from that program or import it into your
graphics program and print it from there.
If you decide not convert the grayscale image to a monochrome image in your bitmap image editing program, then the
driver will do it automatically and will use settings based on the Resolution settings in the driver. Again, refer to the driver
controls section on more details about how to use the driver.
Color Bitmaps
The driver handles color bitmaps the same as grayscale bitmaps. Since color bitmaps use more memory, they are
unnecessary and are therefore
NOT
recommended. You can scan color photographs by using the grayscale mode or if it
is already color, convert it to a monochrome bitmap in your bitmap image processing program.
Graphics software
