FirePoint prepares your images for laser engraving

Command line program to convert an image to a more "engraver ready" image. Default values should provide decent results, many different effects can be achieved my using the numerous parameters.

Examples

this color image is the input which have been used to generate the following 4x4cm wooden squares from those images:

Note: such output image is too bright / requires high power (not ideal):

Syntax

firepoint [options] <source image> <output image>

Installation

pip install firedot

Options

• --use_squares draws squares instead of circles, sometimes provides better results
• --width forces a specific width (in pixels) for the output image
• --multiply makes the image more dark (<1) or brighter (>1)
• --normalize performs a normalization of the colors, 0 to disable up to 1 (100% normalized)
• --sharpen sharpens the image, 0 to disable up to 1 (100% sharper)
• --hypersample When > 1, will work on a higher definition image and will re-scale it down at the end. Generally increasing the quality drastically, but can lead to weird effects with some values 3 and 5 can provide spectacular results but 1 leads to more consistent output across laser settings (outputs a pure black & white image).

Advanced options

Check firepoint --help

Typical usage

Check the following apps for a complete engraving ecosystem:

• https://github.com/johannesnoordanus/image2gcode can be used to convert firepoint images to gcode use the --pixelsize matching your machine
• https://github.com/johannesnoordanus/grblhud allows sending the gcode & controlling the machine