Using LaserTools alongside LightBurn
LightBurn is excellent at what it does: driving the laser. Its built-in image processing covers basic dithering and grayscale for raster engraving, but anything beyond — AI depth estimation, photo restoration, 3D mesh generation, point clouds for subsurface engraving — is outside its scope. LaserTools is a pre-processor: it produces the file you then hand to LightBurn (or any other controller).
| Feature | LaserTools | LightBurn |
|---|---|---|
| Drives the laser machine | No — pre-processor only | Yes (primary purpose) |
| AI background removal | Yes | No |
| AI image upscaling | Yes (2×) | No |
| AI image editing from text prompts | Yes (PHOTON, WAVELENGTH) | No |
| AI depth-map generation | Yes (emBOSS v1.0) | No |
| 3D mesh generation from a photo | Yes (2.5D & 3D) | No |
| Subsurface crystal point-cloud design | Yes (Crystal Studio) | No |
| Output formats | PNG, depth-map PNG, PLY, OBJ, STL, GLB, DXF | Imports the above, drives the laser |
| Runs in | Browser | Desktop (Windows / macOS / Linux) |
Which one to reach for
The dividing line is simple: LightBurn answers how the machine moves, LaserTools answers what you are sending it. Layers, power and speed, framing, camera alignment, running and repeating the job are all LightBurn, and none of that changes. Reach for LaserTools when the file itself is the problem. A customer photo with a cluttered background. A cracked scan that needs repairing before it will engrave. A flat image that has to become a bas-relief height map, a mesh, or a point cloud for subsurface crystal work, which are file types you are expected to arrive with. If your artwork is already a clean vector, or a well-lit high-contrast photo, go straight to LightBurn and use its own image controls. Adding a preparation step you do not need costs time and credits for no gain. The realistic pattern is a browser tab open beside LightBurn, used on the jobs that need it and ignored on the ones that do not.
Slotting it in front of LightBurn
There is nothing to install and no plugin to load. You work in a browser tab, export a file, and open that file in LightBurn exactly as you would one from any other source. The formats that move between them: PNG out of Photo Studio for raster photo engraving; an 8-bit PNG height map out of Embossing Studio when you are cutting variable-depth relief; GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY or DXF out of Mesh Studio if the job continues in a 3D tool; PLY, PCD, XYZ or DXF out of Crystal Studio for a subsurface machine. Your material library, test grids and power-and-speed notes all stay where they are, because nothing upstream of the machine changes what the machine does. If you need a format conversion on the way, the STL, OBJ, GLB, PLY and PCD converters under Resources are free and need no account.
The takeaway
Use LaserTools to prep the file; use LightBurn to engrave it. They aren't competitors — they cover different links in the same workflow chain.