image2gcode 2.4.1

image2gcode: convert an image to gcode.

image2gcode

Convert an image to gcode for GRBL v1.1 compatible diode laser engravers.

Diode lasers are fast at switching to different power levels. This makes them ideal to write pixels (with discrete intensity levels) at a relatively fast rate.

This program converts each image pixel to a gcode move of --pixelsize length - one on one. Images (with or without Alpha channel) are converted to black&white first - laser intensity (burn rate) can be seen as a grayscale - and get a white background. Image pixel intensities are inverted (burnrate is an inverse scale) and translated to gcode move commands. Note that the image to convert is unaltered in all other aspects and keeps its pixel dimensions!

Conversion produces optimized gcode: pixels with same intensity are drawn with one gcode move command and only coordinates and gcode comands that change are writen. Images are drawn in a scan line way: the laserhead sweeps from left to right and vice versa, with each sweep stepping in the other direction, but images are drawn within their outline only and background (white) is skipped at maximum speed between image 'zones'. See options --speedmoves and --noise.

It is possible to validate the gcode produced in one go: its size, placement and pixel burnlevels are visible with switch --validate. Further information can be obtained by looking at the header of the gcode file produced.

Note that to get great engravings it is important to use source images that have a high contrast ratio, because burnlevels have less intensity range. To get an engraving the right size, make sure images have enough pixels. For example if your machines laser width is 0.08mm I would recomment using a pixel size of 0.1mm, an engraving of 50x65 mm^2 (widthxheight) will need the source image resolution to be 500x650 pixels (widthxheight) in this case.

To summarize:

Optimized gcode

• draw pixels in one go until change of power
• emit X/Y coordinates only when they change
• emit linear move 'G1/G0' code minimally
• does not emit zero power (or below cutoff) pixels

General optimizations

• laser head has defered and sparse moves. (XY locations are virtual, head does not always follow)
• moves at high speed (G0) over 10mm (default) or more zero pixels
• low burn levels (stray pixels) can be suppressed (default off)

Install

Depends on python libraries numpy, PIL and (inverse function) gcode2image (https://github.com/johannesnoordanus/gcode2image/)

> pip install image2gcode

Note: on Manjaro it is 'pipx' now!

Example:

[somedir]> image2gcode --maxpower 300 --showimage --speedmoves 5 --noise 5 --validate test.png test.gc

This command generates a gcode file 'test.gc' from an image 'test.png'. It burns pixels - .1mm^2 default - 
at a maximum of 300 (which level is laser machine dependend).
Option --showimages starts an image viewer containing the original image in B&W and added white background 
(when transparent) and option --validate shows the resulting image via an inverse function - gcode2image - 
to be able to verify the gcode file. 
Option --speedmove 5 generates a maximum speed moves (G0) for non burn zones which (can) speed up engravings 
significantly. 
Option --noise 5 omits all pixels having burn values of 5 or less, this can remove noise (stray pixels) from some images. 

The result file 'test.gc' contains highly optimized gcodes (the file is of minimal length) and gcodes run a minimal path.

Usage:

> image2gcode --help
usage: image2gcode [-h] [--showimage] [--pixelsize <default:0.1>] [--speed <default:800>] [--maxpower <default:300>] [--offset X-off Y-off]
                   [--speedmoves <default:10>] [--noise <default:0>] [--constantburn] [--validate] [-V]
                   image [gcode]

Convert an image to gcode for GRBL v1.1 compatible diode laser engravers,
 each image pixel is converted to a gcode move of pixelsize length.

positional arguments:
  image                 image file to be converted to gcode
  gcode                 gcode output

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --showimage           show b&w converted image
  --pixelsize <default:0.1>
                        pixel size in mm (XY-axis): each image pixel is drawn this size
  --speed <default:800>
                        draw speed in mm/min
  --maxpower <default:300>
                        maximum laser power while drawing (as a rule of thumb set to 1/3 of the maximum of a machine having a 5W laser)
  --offset X-off Y-off  laser drawing starts at offset (default: X10.0 Y10.0)
  --speedmoves <default:10>
                        length of zero burn zones in mm (0 sets no speedmoves): issue speed (G0) moves when skipping space of given length (or more)
  --noise <default:0>   noise power level, do not burn pixels below this power level
  --constantburn        select constant burn mode M3 (a bit more dangerous!), instead of dynamic burn mode M4
  --validate            validate gcode file, do inverse and show image result
  -V, --version         show version number and exit