About Glowforge

What is a Glowforge?

The Glowforge 3D laser printer creates beautiful things at the push of a button. You can see what it does in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysCaqh38JVQ.

What can I make with Glowforge?

You can make an endless variety of useful, beautiful, and practical things from a bunch of different materials like wood, leather, felt, fabric, acrylic, paper, and more. See what amazing things other Glowforge owners are making over on Instagram, #glowforge.

How can I get email updates about Glowforge?

We will send you major updates via email, but these happen only occasionally when we have major news. We update the Glowforge Owners Forum regularly, though, and you can have more frequent announcements emailed to you.

First, you need to set up your owner account and log in. You'll know the signin worked if you go to glowforge.com and see your email in the top-right hand corner.

Once you're signed in, just follow these steps:

  1. Go to community.glowforge.com
  2. Go to the Announcements section
  3. Click the alert icon in the top-right and select "Watching First Post" to have new activity emailed to you.

How is Glowforge different from a 3D printer?

Glowforge uses subtractive manufacturing while traditional 3D printers use additive manufacturing. A 3D printer builds up material, like plastic filament, layer by layer. With Glowforge, you’ll put a piece of material like leather, wood, or acrylic in the machine and it carves out your product using laser light. The technical name for the category of tools that includes Glowforge is a CNC laser cutter engraver, but that's a mouthful, so we call it a 3D laser printer.

What kind of software and hardware do I need to use Glowforge?

You can use your Glowforge from your Mac, PC, tablet, and more, using our simple, powerful, and free web interface. You’ll just need an up-to-date version of Google Chrome, Firefox, Apple Safari, or Microsoft Edge.

You can design with any software that saves a PDF, including dozens choices like Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, CorelDraw, Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, Autodesk 360, and Sketchup. Glowforge can print JPG, PNG, SVG, PDF, and other file formats. To print a file, just drag-and-drop it directly on our app, and then adjust the preview to your liking.

How do I set up an account?

To create an account and set up your Glowforge:

  1. Go to glowforge.com/setup

  2. Follow the prompts there to create your very own Glowforge account

  3. Go to setup.glowforge.com to begin the setup process

Once you’ve created an account, make sure you take a look at most recent version of the Glowforge manual at https://glowforge.com/manual and Learn by Doing tutorial to get you started. If you run into any trouble, take a look at the Support area of the App as well as Troubleshooting for the most common problems.

Finally, our Glowforge Community has created a wealth of tutorials to get you started using your Glowforge right away. You can find these in the Tips & Tricks section of the community forum.

Can my child use a Glowforge?

Your Glowforge is an ideal tool for fostering creativity and design at a young age. There's nothing more rewarding than making toys instead of buying them. Adult supervision is required for those under age 18.

Where can I see a product demo? Can I take a tour?

We wish we could have you over, but the best ways to see a Glowforge in person are to catch us at a live event or to check for a Glowforge in a makerspace or library in your area.

Where are Glowforge printers manufactured?

Every Glowforge unit is manufactured by Flex, one of the best-respected manufacturers in the world, in a facility used for producing Fortune-500 consumer electronics products. They are designed in Seattle and parts are sourced from around the world. Some units are assembled at Flex's U.S. facility and some are produced at their facility in Mexico.

Will Glowforge be difficult to set up or learn how to use?

Glowforge is incredibly easy to use. Most of our customers tell us it takes them less than 30 minutes to get their printer out of the box, plug it in, set it up, AND finish their first print!

The web interface, point-and-click software, and simple hardware (just one button!) combine to make it both simple and easy to use.

Your Glowforge comes with a detailed manual to help you learn to use it easily and quickly. We also have many resources to help: our community forum answers most questions within hours, our detailed learning information at glowforge.com/support answers the most frequently asked questions, and we’re always here to help if you have a question.

We’ve seen incredible creativity from people ranging from preschool students to great-grandparents. We have no doubt you’ll be able to create amazing things!

Can I schedule a call with a Glowforge representative?

We've done our very best to provide answers to the most common questions, but sometimes, there's no substitute for a real conversation with a Glowforge owner who knows their Glowforge inside-and-out.

You can schedule time with a Glowforge representative here to get fast answers to your questions and figure out which machine is right for you.

I want to work at Glowforge! Are you hiring?

Yes, we are! Please visit us at glowforge.com/jobs where you can see the positions we have open. That's also the place you can submit your resume and cover letter. We also welcome submissions of resumes for roles we haven't posted - even if we're not looking for the role right now, we'll keep it in case something opens up.