A laser engraves crystal one tiny crack at a time. The file it reads is a point cloud: a list of millions of positions in the glass. Here is what DTO Crystal does between your photo and that file.
1 · Reading the photo
The site works out what the photo is (a portrait, a group, a pet, a scene, a logo), finds faces, removes the background if you want, and tunes the tones so the result reads like a good black-and-white print in glass.
2 · Turning brightness into dots
Bright areas get many dots, mid-tones fewer, and near-black stays clear glass. The dots are spread in a carefully random pattern so there is no banding or grid look. Every crystal gets a fixed number of dots for its quality, so burn times are predictable.
- Lite: 600,000 dots. Fastest burn, about a quarter of Premium's time. Good for text, logos and test burns; photos look grainy.
- Standard: 1,500,000 dots. In between: smoother photos than Lite, faster than Premium.
- Premium: 2,200,000 dots. Best for photos: the smoothest, most detailed look.
3 · Adding depth
An AI depth map gives the picture its 3D shape. People and pets are kept as a shallow relief, about 8 to 12 mm deep, because that stays sharp from every angle. Scenes and objects get more depth (up to 26 mm) for a stronger 3D effect.
4 · The file
The result is a binary PLY file in millimetres, centred in your blank with clear glass on every face, turned the way xTool Studio expects for a standing or lying crystal. Import it with Keep size and it lands exactly where the preview showed it.
Two photos in one crystal
Turn & Reveal hides a second photo in the side of the crystal: one picture from the front, another when you turn it a quarter turn. It works on standing blocks and cubes, and both photos are sharpest at eye level.