 
## Snap and Store Box
![Snap and Store Box Image](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/1uiH5dH3jiseaE4wU606Qu/77da8d742fa4daf496f4bc7fbbb52b23/Snap_and_Store_Box_Image.jpg)

We love to see the amazing things people make - whether they’re elaborate original creations, or just a joyful printing of one of our starter projects.  We’ve been thinking about upgrading the plaque project for a while, and we finally found the perfect replacement.  The Snap and Store box is fast to print, easy to assemble, fun to personalize, and will be a great new way to get started with Glowforge.

Of course, you’re already started - but we’ll add this handy box to your Dashboard at app.glowforge.com shortly.  New users will get this instead of the plaque.  You’ll get both!


## Full Rotation
You can now rotate! Previously, rotation only worked with pure vector images.  Now, you can click on anything, then drag the little frying pan handle sticking out of the top to rotate it.  It works with both uploaded files and with Trace.  You might try it out by customizing your new Snap and Store box?


## Refer
The #whatmadethis campaign is showcasing hundreds of beautiful projects, and it’s just the first few days!  We’d love for you to participate. Just share a picture of something you made with the text #whatmadethis and include the custom link we created for you at [glowforge.com/referrals](https://glowforge.com/referrals).   


We love to see the amazing things people make - whether they’re elaborate original creations, or just a joyful printing of one of our starter projects.  We’ve been thinking about upgrading the plaque project for a while, and we finally found the perfect replacement.  The Snap and Store box is fast to print, easy to assemble, fun to personalize, and will be a great new way to get started with Glowforge. Of course, you’re already started - but we’ll add this handy box to your Dashboard at app.glowforge.com shortly.  

Snap and Store and Rotate and Refer

## Autosave
From now on, every design you create on your Glowforge will automatically save changes you make, as you make them. That means that if you close your browser, navigate to another page, or just hit refresh, your work will pick up right where you left off. 

Should you make a change by mistake, you can use undo any time until you leave or refresh the page. If you want a clean start, you can always go to your dashboard and click the upload button to upload the file again. If you got the design from the catalog, then you can start fresh if you click on the three-dot icon and click “Reset Design” to remove all changes.

This was our most requested feature from customers like you - we’re excited to be able to launch it today!

## Faster startup
When you turn on your Glowforge, you’ve probably seen it move the Printer Head to the center so the camera can determine exactly where it is.  That process is getting a lot smarter this week, so your Glowforge will start faster and you’ll be printing sooner.  You’ll also notice that it’s less likely to rattle against the left or right side, even if the head is not in the center when you turn it on.   

## More helpful messages
If you use material that your Glowforge measures to be too thick or print a file that your Glowforge can’t handle, you’ll now get a more detailed message explaining what happened and what you can do about it.

## Print preview improvements
We’ve made some improvements to squash bugs, improve appearances, and speed up the print preview page.  You should find it works better now on non-Chrome browsers, too! Note that the image no longer blurs when your lid is open - instead, it changes to black-and-white.

From now on, every design you create on your Glowforge will automatically save changes you make, as you make them. That means that if you close your browser, navigate to another page, or just hit refresh, your work will pick up right where you left off. 

Should you make a change by mistake, you can use undo any time until you leave or refresh the page. If you want a clean start, you can always go to your dashboard and click the upload button to upload the file again. If you got the design from the catalog, then you can start fresh if you click on the three-dot icon and click “Reset Design” to remove all changes.

This was our most requested feature from customers like you - we’re excited to be able to launch it today!

Autosave, Faster startup, and more

We’re always working to make your prints faster and better.  Today, we’re rolling out a whole host of new engrave options for Proofgrade materials.  Here’s a quick guide to what you’ll find:

## Detail and speed options ##
We now offer a variety of choices to let you pick the tradeoff of detail and speed that best fits your project.  Not all choices are available on all materials, but you may find:

__Draft__ engraves are designed to print as quickly as possible, while still giving good visual quality.  For some purposes you may like the lighter low-res look; for others, you may want to do a draft engrave just to see how the project is going to come out.  

__Standard definition__ (“SD”) engraves are the default.  These offer better detail and smoother edges than draft engraves, but are still not too slow to finish. 

__High definition__ (“HD”) engraves are now available.  These offer the very highest level of detail, smoothest corners, and the ability to engrave truly tiny details.  HD engraves are slow, and best for smaller prints where you want exquisite detail.  

## Engrave styles ##
We also now offer styles that are specialized for different types of source art.  Not all materials support all styles, but you can choose from:

__Graphic__ engrave: Graphic settings are optimized for vector art, sans serif text, and solid blocks of color. It’s great for icons, images that are pure black and white (with no grey), or images with a few solid colors.  

__Photo__ engrave: Photo settings are optimized for photographs, color or greyscale images, and images with gradients or lots of colors.  You’ll need to pre-process your image for engraving (increasing the contrast and sharpening it) for the best results. 

The old settings will be maintained for a week or two and then will be removed.  We hope you’ll enjoy trying them out - we can’t wait to see what you’ll make!


New & Improved Engravings

Following our brief scheduled downtime Monday, we rolled out some significant fixes that we hope you'll like:
* Fewer upload errors
* Fewer planning errors
* Faster planning for prints
* Large prints should work better
We know how frustrating it is when you upload a print and get an error - that should be happening quite a bit less often now!

Following our brief scheduled downtime Monday, we rolled out some significant fixes that we hope you'll like.

Printing Improvements

We’ve heard from many of you that it’s hard to find out when things have changed, and the Latest Improvements information (that’s this!) is hard to find.  We heard you!  From now on, we’re including Latest Improvements in the sidebar so you can stay current on whatever’s happening.

Latest Improvements, On the Side

This week’s improvement is short and sweet: we’re making your cameras faster!  We know how much you love to print and hate to wait - this will bring your thumb-twiddling quotient down every time you close the lid.  The update will download and install sometime this week when you power on your machine.



Snap! Faster cameras

## New Proofgrade presets

Part of the magic of your Glowforge is that you can print without the frustration and hazards of experimental materials and settings.  Today, we’re introducing some new Proofgrade engraving presets to make your prints even better.  These presets are designed for different kinds of artwork, so each design can show its best.

These are all under continuous development - we’d love your feedback for how they work.  Expect more refinements and options to come!

### Graphic
Use the Graphic setting for text, logos, or other images that have large areas of one color.  It will give you crisp edges and maximum impact!  Clip art, icons, and vector drawings are all great choices for the Graphic setting. 
 
Our design team has worked to bring out the characteristics of each material - you’ll find that in addition to the regular Graphic, some natural materials have other tones, like the Dark Graphic setting, and acrylics will give you a Deep option.  

You’ll have best results with text that’s 10pt and above and lines that are 0.01” (0.25mm) or thicker.  We recommend converting your image to grayscale using your favorite image editor, then making sure that anything you want to see clearly is medium to dark gray (at least 20%, and more than 40% is recommended).    

### Photo 
The key to great photo engravings is your photo editor.  You want lots of contrast and liberal use of the “sharpen” effect!  If you’re printing on clear or translucent acrylic, you may want to mirror the image (so you can view it from the opposite side) and invert the colors for the best effect.

Once you’ve done that, though, the “photo” setting will get you the rest of the way there.  It’s terrific for making family photos permanent, especially on Proofgrade hardwoods, plywoods, and Draftboard.

### 3D Engrave 
It’s finally here!  One of the amazing things you can do with your Glowforge is engrave shapes with real depth and detail.  You can’t use a regular image for this - you have to use an image that’s been specially created for 3D engraving called a Heightmap.  A Heightmap is like a grayscale picture, except that the darker a spot on the picture is, the deeper it will engrave. 

Proofgrade hardwoods, acrylics, and Draftboard all support 3D engraving.  Thick materials have a second option, “Deep 3D Engrave”, that uses a second pass of the laser to achieve maximum depth. 

We can’t wait to see what you’ll do with this!

### High Quality Score  

High Quality Score setting gives you a clear, consistent line to maximize the visual effect of your artwork.

### Draft Score 

Use this option when you’re prototyping - the Draft score setting is faster, but it’s lighter in the middle and creates dark spots on corners. 

One last note: These new settings will replace the old settings -- but don’t worry, the existing ones will be there for at least a week, and labeled with “(Expiring Soon)”.  That way, if you’re in the middle of a project and want to preserve the ones you’re using for later, you can click the arrow at the top of the Proofgrade Engrave or Proofgrade Score menu, then click “Manual” to see the underlying settings & write them down.

## Decreasing veneer prices 
Prices in the shop vary over the course of time and we usually don’t announce it, but we did want to mention that after working with our supplier, we managed to get rid of the $1 price increase for finished veneer. It’s so attractive and useful (for everything from stickers to wall decor), we think you’ll love it!

## Referral code
Our referral program is going strong, and owners are scooping up new referrals every day.  A few of you asked if we could make it easier to share.  You got it!  We got the domain “glowforge.us” just for you.  You can see your new, shorter “.us” referral code here:
 
https://glowforge.com/referrals
 
Enjoy!


3D Engraving as Proofgrade Prints get Prettier

## New starter design: “Gift of Good Measure Keychain”
Coming soon to your dashboard - a new starter print!  We’re adding the Gift of Good Measure Keychain to the prints you have available.  Based on all the love we’ve heard from you about the Founders’ Ruler, we made you a keychain with triple the measuring delight: it measures distances, radiuses, and curves.  You can print it on even a small scrap of draftboard or plywood (we recommend against hardwood, since the natural grain may cause the thin loop to snap). It’s a great giveaway to show a guest what your Glowforge can do.
Even if you don’t use it now, make sure not to delete it - if you contact the Customer Success team for help, they may ask you to print it. 

## New Proofgrade settings menu
We’ve got changes in store for Proofgrade settings.  In preparation for adding new Proofgrade settings for our materials, we’ve streamlined the interface to give you a description of each choice and leave more space for new options. 

![New PG UI](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/2aWegqxKAQWYYqQOQyMSYg/6a98bf7799190a9e96a19977d0ffb5bd/image1.png)

The Gift of Good Measure, and Proofgrade settings changes coming

If you’re the type that likes to be prepared for anything, you’re in luck. We now offer spare parts for your Glowforge printer, from fresh laser lenses to pristine packaging for safe transport. You can find them in the spare parts section of the Shop. And yes, you can even purchase additional pairs of the must-have eyewear, Glowforge Pro Glasses.

![Extra exhaust spare part](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/2M0CNVy3z2mOOq2Uui2QCu/e57fa04f7cbf968079045bd58d71830c/image2.jpg) ![Extra pro glasses spare part](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/24M4OMChRKI0KUWMskG2YQ/c7639d4f75f516195657c5f6b4c43d02/image3.jpg)

## Pro Shields

Back in June, we announced that we were developing Pro Shields and adding them to every Glowforge Pro order. Pro Shields fasten onto the Pro Passthrough slots to ensure that nothing - material or laser light - comes in or out. They’re easy to add or remove with just two finger-screws that are permanently attached so you don’t lose them.

In the next few weeks, Glowforge units will start being delivered with Pro Shields installed already. If you have received your Glowforge Pro without shields, no worries - we’ll ship a pair to you at no extra cost to you. (We don’t have an estimated ship date for you yet, but will email you when they’re ready). 

![Pro Shields](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/67sOPDKR1Yy8kkmSUqo2cs/1d8612316c5428dc73a8a5541e22785c/image1.png)


Spare Parts & Pro Shields

You sent us some great suggestions on how to make the manual photo engraving options easier to use. Thank you! 

![convert to patterns new dither](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/6CGXSiqX0QmyquwYGQsmuC/f445bcdeb104eec87090388d25bc5190/image1.png) ![convert to dots new dither](//images.contentful.com/ljtyf78xujn2/5yuCY508w0iMqwY04YcKca/3c594ca9cde4f3e001c36b6357cc3c72/image2.png)