MOPA Colour Reference Chart
Stainless steel colour settings for LightBurn on MOPA fiber lasers
★ baseline — recipes calibrated at 30W. Only power % scales with wattage.
Stainless Test Card
Engrave on a pre-cut stainless steel business card blank (3.5″ × 2″), then compare each numbered swatch to the recipes above. Open the file in LightBurn — all 15 colour layers and the card outline are already configured.
Download .lbrn for 30W →Full reference table
Power column updates with the wattage selector above. Click any row to see its full recipe.
| # | Colour | Power (30W) | Speed (mm/s) | Freq (kHz) | Q-Pulse (ns) | Interval (mm) | Passes |
|---|
What scales, what doesn't. Power % scales linearly with wattage — a 60W machine at 50% delivers roughly the same actual wattage as a 30W machine at 100%. Frequency, pulse width and speed do not scale with wattage; they depend on your laser source rather than its average power output.
About the source. Recipes were developed on a JPT MOPA fiber laser — the most common MOPA source in this market. Other MOPA sources (Raycus and others) cover similar parameter ranges but may produce slightly different colours from the same recipe. The downloadable test card will reveal the difference on your machine.
About the lens. Recipes are for a 150mm lens (the most common). Different focal lengths affect spot size and energy density — treat the recipes as broad starting points if your lens differs and dial in with the test card.
About red. Deep saturated red is difficult to produce reliably on stainless steel with MOPA — the physics simply doesn't cooperate. The "Red" recipe here sits at the warmer, lighter end of what's achievable. If you need a true fire-engine red, this isn't the process to use.
Other materials. MOPA fiber lasers can also produce colour on titanium and (in a narrower range) brass. Those reference sets are not covered here yet.
Reference recipes originally compiled by LaserSecrets on Etsy and verified on a 30W MOPA fiber laser by Jason Mills. This free chart covers a small sample of recipes for stainless steel colour marking. For the full library — 28+ materials, six lens sizes, and hundreds of additional recipes including photo settings, cut depths, firearm parts, leather, coins, and more — visit the LaserSecrets shop on Etsy →