I’m very new to this so any advice is greatly appreciated.
It seems like suddenly my preview images are very dark compared to what is in the workspace.
I don’t believe the preview has changed in a meaningful way that would affect this. It may just be related to the particular designs you’re now working with.
No. This makes no difference.
Note that the preview shows you the final laser path being taken which is affected by the dithering method chosen which is necessarily different than what is shown on the workspace. If you zoom into the Preview you’ll get a better view of the laser path and lines won’t be so tightly packed making it appear so dark.
In all honesty, I do not use the preview to work with pictures… I have never seen anything close to the final outcome. The best thing to do is engrave it and then work with your photo settings to get it where you want it
If you zoom in a whole lot [press + key], you will see the marks that will be made when lasered. That dialog is just not big enough to show much detail for engraving