Why a picture?
A project file only means something to people who own the program that made it. Send a .lbrn2 to a customer for approval and they see an icon; drop it into a chat app and nobody can preview it. Shops selling digital laser files need a preview image for every listing, and a quote reads better with the design in it. A PNG opens everywhere: phones, email, documents, marketplaces and print shops.
Taking a screenshot of LightBurn's workspace works in a pinch, but you get the grid, the selection handles and whatever resolution your screen happens to have. The PNG made here is just the design, edge to edge with a slim margin, as sharp as you ask for.
How to make one
- Open the project with the button above, or drag it onto the page. For an xTool file with several canvases, pick the canvas under the file name.
- Turn off layers you don't want in the picture using the coloured chips under the drawing. Tool layers stay out unless you tick them in the SVG card.
- Under Export, choose a resolution and a white or transparent background, then press Download PNG. The PNG button next to Download SVG at the top does the same with the current choices.
Which resolution?
Pixels across = millimetres ÷ 25.4 × dpi. A 100 mm coaster comes out about 590 pixels wide at 150 dpi, 1,180 at 300 dpi and 2,360 at 600 dpi.
- 150 dpi for chat messages, email and quick previews, where small files matter more than detail.
- 300 dpi, the default, for listings, documents and ordinary printing.
- 600 dpi for fine detail, small text, or a print you mean to inspect closely.
The dpi is written into the PNG, so a word processor or photo printer that respects it prints the design at its real size. That makes a paper test of the layout before cutting easy: print at 100% scale and lay it on the material. Browsers can't draw enormous pictures, so a very large design (a full 600 × 400 mm bed at 300 dpi would be 35 million pixels) is made at a lower dpi, and the page says which one it used.
What the picture shows
Each layer is drawn in its own colour from the file: LightBurn's palette for .lbrn2 and .lbrn files, xTool's layer colours for .xcs and .xs. Fill layers come out as solid shapes, with holes kept open the way the laser leaves them, unless you choose Outlines in the SVG card. Hairline cuts are drawn at least one and a half pixels wide so they stay visible at any resolution. Embedded photos appear at their placed size and angle. xTool lettering is drawn from the letter shapes saved in the file; LightBurn text that was never turned into outlines uses a stand-in font, and the page tells you when that happens.
What it isn't
It's a picture of the drawing, not of a finished piece: it doesn't simulate scorch marks, wood grain or the laser's settings. The burn preview above gives a rough feel for that. And a PNG is pixels, so it can't be cut cleanly: for other laser or CAD software, take the free SVG, or the DXF from the unlock.