Native macOS GRBL Controller for Sculpfun, Ortur, Atomstack & More
A native, fast, and precise tool to control your GRBL-based laser engraver over USB or WiFi. Engrave images, cut SVG vectors, and draw shapes and multi-line text directly on the canvas — no Inkscape or Illustrator needed.
No credit card required. Then €19.99 once, no subscription. Requires macOS 15.6 Sequoia or later.
What people building with Lùmen say
Great option for someone new to using a laser on a CNC machine in the macOS environment. The interface is straightforward to navigate, and I appreciated the library of presets while trying out different materials. When I had a problem with a dialog box not appearing correctly Dimitri acknowledged the issue and fixed it within hours. It is a much better option for me when compared with the various subscription-based alternatives.
Really nice and easy-to-use alternative to household names like LightBurn, still missing some features but with enough time it will become a complete suite!
Dimitri's dedication to his craft is impeccable. Very quick responses to issues and coding fixes/updates. I'm still navigating through all the features of the Lùmen etching software, so there'll be more to come. I have only high praise for the features he's provided that have made the whole process of laser etching straightforward and relatively easy. I have even higher praise for him as a software engineer and conscientious developer. Ciao Dimitri, you are the best and very amiable to interact with.
Wonderful software. Awesome job! I was looking for something on macOS to pair with my hobby laser engraver, and Lùmen has been exactly what I needed. Other options felt either too expensive or too cumbersome to work with, but this just works, and it works beautifully. It connects flawlessly over my network and makes it incredibly simple to get started. I'm really looking forward to trying more of the new AI integration features, including the MCP integration, which connected to OpenAI Codex without any headache. I'm also excited that it feels truly native to Mac. It's clearly in active development, feels premium, and does not come across like an older product being limped along with a subscription. Bravo, Dimitri!
I was searching for good Mac-based software to operate my new Artilume T1 laser and came across Lùmen. Dimitri was extremely responsive in addressing the issues any new software faces. I highly recommend Lùmen.
Professional tools in a clean, native macOS interface
Lùmen speaks MCP (Model Context Protocol). Switch on AI control and ask Claude — or any MCP client — to build your design in plain language: “add a 60 mm circle with the text 2026 centered.” Shapes, text, and material presets appear right on the canvas, and the assistant can even screenshot the work area to see what it made. For safety, the AI only designs — it never moves the head, homes, or fires the laser. You stay in control of the machine.
Import PNG, JPEG, BMP, or TIFF images and convert to GCode with three modes: 7 dithering algorithms, grayscale mapping, or threshold. Adjust brightness, contrast, and resolution with real-time preview.
Lùmen isn't just a sender. Draw rectangles, ellipses, lines, polylines, and multi-line text right on the canvas — no Inkscape or Illustrator for simple jobs. Pick any font installed on your Mac with full width and style variants, and combine anchor-locked resize, free rotation, and per-item Fill/Stroke intensity that maps directly to laser power. Select many objects at once, align and space them, copy and paste between projects, and send a drawn shape from Engrave to Cut or Score and back.
Cut the cable. Lùmen now connects to network-capable GRBL engravers over WiFi — pick WiFi, type the machine's IP and port, and hit Connect. It's the exact same GRBL command stream as USB, so every feature works identically. Ideal for ESP32-based controllers like the Algolaser Pixie.
Two ways to work, one engine. The new Simple sidebar is a guided five-step flow — machine & material, design, position, frame, engrave — that walks you from connect to engrave without hunting through panels. Flip to Advanced any time for the full cockpit.
Choose your machine and its laser power — SCULPFUN C1 Mini · 3 W, Ortur Laser Master 3 · 20 W — and every material preset adapts to it. The presets were measured on a 3 W diode: run as they are on a 20 W laser, they would put down nearly seven times the energy. Lùmen shows the adapted power, speed and passes before you start, as the estimate it is, and the test grid follows your laser too.
Does ↑ move the head sideways? Some engravers are used turned on the table — an Artilume T1 faced from its arm, for one. Click ↻ beside the jog pad and the machine turns a quarter: the bed on the canvas, the arrows and the engraving all follow. Click until ↑ moves the head away from you; Lùmen remembers it for that machine.
QR, Data Matrix, Aztec, PDF417, Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13 and UPC-A, drawn as sharp vector geometry. Type a link, a Wi-Fi network or a contact card and Lùmen writes what a phone camera reads — then checks the code will scan at your engrave resolution, and tells you how wide to make it if it won't. Inverted mode for slate and anodised aluminium.
Drag to select several objects, move and scale them as one, align them to each other or to the bed, and space them with an exact gap in millimetres — parts laid out for cutting, evenly. Cut, copy, paste and duplicate (even between projects), a right-click menu, rulers and Fit to Scene. Every action is one ⌘Z.
Burn a numbered bed grid once on a sheet you leave on the bed, and place every part by its coordinates instead of framing back and forth: X 40, Y 60 on the sheet is X 40, Y 60 on the canvas. Then keep it on screen as a locked reference — clicks pass through it, nothing moves it, and it never burns again. Any object can be locked or kept as a reference, right from the layer list.
Engrave tumblers, bottles, pens and rolling pins. Give Lùmen the two numbers your rotary's manual quotes — mm per rotation and roller diameter — and it works the Y scale out against your machine's own flat calibration, read off the controller when you connect. Rollers or chuck: with a chuck the scale follows the workpiece, so it's recomputed for every object. Your flat setup is saved before anything is overwritten, so the bed is one click away — and Lùmen never homes with a rotary fitted.
Long jobs stalling partway through? Turn on Reliable mode: Lùmen sends one line at a time and safely recovers from a dropped acknowledgement, so the job runs to the end. Switch any time, even mid-job.
Lùmen switches your air pump with the job — on before the first move, off at the end. Off by default, so machines without a pump keep the exact G-code they always got.
Load SVG files for precise vector cutting. Supports paths, rectangles, circles, ellipses, arcs, and bezier curves with configurable speed, power, and passes.
Every shape, text, image, code and drawing in the order the machine runs them — engrave, score, cut — each with its operation on a pill. Change it from the pill: a filled square sent to Cut is cut along its edge, and comes back filled if you return it to Engrave.
Move and resize layers with drag & drop or type exact X, Y, W, H, and angle in millimeters and degrees. Even the engrave image rotates — and the rotation is baked straight into the G-code, not just a visual effect.
Floyd-Steinberg, Atkinson, Burkes, Jarvis-Judice-Ninke, Sierra, Sierra Lite, and Stucki. Pick the best one for your material and style.
5-second countdown before every job. Auto-homing, soft jog limits, overscan clamping, and automatic laser-off at job completion.
Generate calibration grids to find the perfect settings for any material. Configurable speed range, power range, cell size, and resolution.
Use machine homing or set a custom origin anywhere. Custom origin is WYSIWYG — jog to position, set zero, and whatever you place on the canvas engraves exactly there. It's even saved with your project.
Toggle a low-power laser dot to preview exactly where your engrave will land. Frame mode traces the full job boundary with the laser.
Lùmen's .gcode v2 format embeds every shape, text, and style as JSON. Reopen a project and find every item still editable — no flattening to curves or pixels. Still readable by any generic G-code sender.
Stopped mid-job? Resume from the exact line where you left off. No need to start over.
Serial console, real-time status, feed & speed overrides, jog controls, alarm management — everything you need, nothing you don't.
Ready-to-use presets for wood, leather, paper, cardboard, cork, acrylic, aluminum foil, and more, adapted to your laser's power. Create and save your own custom presets for any material.
Lùmen checks for updates automatically and lets you know when a new version is available. Always stay up to date.
One real job in under a minute: import a logo, compose it, pick your presets, engrave. Filmed on a Sculpfun C1.
Engraved with Lùmen's dithering and presets — on our SCULPFUN C1 Mini, and by makers on their own machines
Compatible with all GRBL-based laser engravers over USB — or WiFi for network-capable controllers. Built-in presets for popular models.
Any GRBL-based laser engraver with USB serial connection. Create and save your own machine presets.
3-day free trial. Then €19.99 once — no subscription.
No credit card required. Requires macOS 15.6 Sequoia or later. Universal binary (Apple Silicon & Intel).
