Lightburn MasteryModule 2.3~5 min read

Trace Image: Raster to Vector Deep Dive

Lightburn's Trace Image tool converts a raster image (PNG, JPG, BMP) into editable vector paths. Critical for: cutting a customer-supplied logo, vectorizing a hand-drawn sketch, cleaning up an AI-generated image for engraving. The defaults rarely give you the result you want, the parameters matter.

When to trace vs not

You have	You want	Trace it?
Customer logo as PNG	To cut/engrave it as clean lines and fills	Yes: trace, then clean up paths.
Customer logo as PDF / SVG / AI	To engrave it	No: File → Import directly. Already vector.
Photo of a person / pet / scene	To photo-engrave	No: keep as raster, use Image mode (Jarvis dither).
Photo of a logo on a sign	To recreate the logo as cuttable vectors	Maybe: Camera Trace (Lightburn camera feature) or Trace Image after photographing flat.
AI-generated black-and-white artwork	To engrave with crisp edges	Yes: but expect to do path cleanup after the trace.
Hand-drawn sketch	To laser-cut the sketch	Yes: scan flat, trace, clean up.

Opening the Trace Image tool

Import the raster image (File → Import, or drag onto the workspace).
Click the image once to select it.
Right-click → Trace Image, OR Tools → Trace Image, OR Alt+T.
The Trace dialog opens with a live preview of the resulting vector outline overlaid on your image.

The parameters: what each one does

Parameter	What it does	Typical starting values
Image Cutoff (Threshold)	Brightness level (0-255) below which pixels are considered "ink" and traced as filled regions. Above this level = "background" and ignored.	128 default. Slide left for more ink (darker source). Slide right for less ink (cleaner output).
Resolution	How densely Lightburn samples the image. Higher = more vector points = more accurate but slower.	Medium for most logos. High for photographs being traced. Low for simple line art.
Smoothness	How aggressively curves are smoothed. Higher = fewer points, softer curves but loses detail. Lower = more points, jagged edges preserved.	0.50 default. Drop to 0.20-0.30 for sharp logos. Push to 0.70+ for organic shapes (leaves, animal silhouettes).
Optimize	Reduces redundant points after tracing. Always leave on.	ON (default).
Tolerance (LB 2.x+)	How far the traced path can deviate from the source image. Higher = simpler paths, less faithful.	0.5 for logos. 1.0+ for organic shapes.
Ignore Less Than (px)	Skips traced regions smaller than N pixels, kills speckles and noise.	5-10 px for clean source. 25+ for noisy/grainy source.

Workflow: clean trace from a customer logo

Customer sends a 300 DPI PNG of their logo. Goal: cut it cleanly on a CO2 laser.

Pre-clean the source in Photoshop / GIMP first. Most "trace looks bad" problems come from a noisy source, not bad trace settings.
- Crop tightly to the logo.
- Convert to grayscale or pure black-and-white.
- Levels: drag black point and white point toward the histogram edges so the logo is full-black on full-white.
- Run a small Despeckle pass to kill JPEG artifacts.
- Export PNG.
Import the cleaned PNG into Lightburn.
Trace Image → start with defaults. Watch the preview.
If the trace shows speckles/noise: increase Ignore Less Than until they disappear.
If the trace shows blocky / pixelated edges: increase Resolution, drop Smoothness slightly.
If the trace shows over-smoothed corners: drop Smoothness to 0.20-0.30.
If the trace misses fine details: drop Image Cutoff (capture more of the gray midtones).
Click OK to commit the trace. The vector paths appear on a new layer next to the original raster.
Delete the original raster image if you don't need it as reference. Lightburn keeps both stacked otherwise.

Path cleanup (the part most tutorials skip)

The trace is rarely production-ready. Spend 5-10 minutes cleaning up:

Edit Nodes (Tools → Edit Nodes, or hotkey N), select stray points and delete them. Look for jaggy edges that should be smooth, or smooth curves that should be sharp.
Simplify (Tools → Optimize Selected Shapes), globally reduces point count without visible quality loss. Faster cuts.
Boolean Union overlapping shapes that should be one. Common with traces of stylized logos.
Delete duplicate paths: sometimes the trace produces stacked identical paths. Lightburn's Tools → Delete Duplicates finds and removes them.
Close gaps: if a cut path has a tiny break, the laser won't cut through. Use Auto-Join Selected Shapes with a small tolerance (0.05 mm) to merge the gap.
Verify with Cut Preview (Alt+P), the preview shows exactly what the laser will do. Catch missing strokes or weird path orders here, not on the material.

Common gotchas

Tracing a JPG of a logo that's already a PDF/SVG. If the customer can give you the original vector, ALWAYS take it over a JPG. Saves all this work.
Tracing a watermarked stock image: the watermark traces too. Pre-edit it out before tracing.
Tracing an anti-aliased screen-grab. Anti-aliasing creates gray pixels around every edge. The trace tries to capture them and produces fuzzy paths. Threshold the image to pure black/white in Photoshop first.
Expecting trace to fix a low-resolution source. Garbage in, garbage out. A 100×100px logo will not vectorize cleanly no matter how you tune. Ask the customer for a higher-res source.
Forgetting to delete the original raster. The original PNG sits on a separate layer. If left enabled, it engraves alongside the vector, doubled output.
Tracing color images expecting separate paths per color. Trace Image is single-channel, it sees brightness only. To get per-color separation, separate the channels in Photoshop first and trace each separately.

Camera Trace: the live alternative

If you have a Lightburn camera attached, you can trace directly from the camera image instead of importing a file. Window → Camera Control → Trace Camera Image. Useful for tracing a physical object placed on the bed (a leaf, a pendant, a piece of jewelry).

Place the object flat on the bed under the camera.
Camera Control → Update Overlay (capture the current image).
Right-click on the camera image → Trace.
Same parameters apply (Threshold, Resolution, Smoothness, etc.).
The traced vectors land in the workspace at the camera's calibrated position, meaning the laser will cut them at the same physical location as the object you traced. Useful for "draw this thing's outline so I can cut a copy."