It is potentially confusing, but it is, to my mind, not unreasonable since you can send it vector files and it very much acts like a printer in tracing out the file you send to either cut or laser engrave the medium. A vinyl cutting machine, for instance, is used to “print” signs, and printing signs (not using vinyl) is also a use of the Glowforge. [Vinyl cutting machines for sign shops use blades. Never cut vinyl with a laser cutter as lasers vaporize the PVC creating an acid, which can hurt people and machines.]
Some argue that subtractive processes can’t be “printing” since historically printing has involved adding ink or toner to paper. However, if you look at this dictionary definition of printing you’ll note that the definition centers around the results (creating text or pictures) rather than the exact process:
print | print |
verb [with object]
1 produce (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.), especially in large quantities, by a mechanical process involving the transfer of text, images, or designs to paper: a thousand copies of the book were printed .
• produce (text or a picture) by printing: the words had been printed in blue type .
• (of a newspaper or magazine) publish (a piece of writing) within its pages: the article was printed in the first edition .
• (of a publisher or printer) arrange for (a book, manuscript, etc.) to be reproduced in large quantities: Harper printed her memoirs in 1930 .
• produce a paper copy of (information stored on a computer): the results of a search can be printed out .
• send (a computer file) to a printer or to another, temporary file.
• produce (a photographic print) from a negative: any make of film can be developed and printed .
2 write (text) clearly without joining the letters: print your name and address on the back of the check | [no object] : it will be easier to read if I print .
3 mark (a surface, typically a textile or a garment) with a colored design or pattern: a delicate fabric printed with roses .
• transfer (a colored design or pattern) to a surface: patterns of birds, flowers, and trees were printed on the cotton .
• make (a mark or indentation) on a surface or in a soft substance by pressing something onto it: a beetle scurried by, printing tracks in the sand with its busy feet .
• mark or indent (the surface of a soft substance): we printed the butter with carved wooden butter molds .
• fix (something) firmly or indelibly in someone’s mind: his face, with its clearly drawn features, was printed on her memory .
Note that we “print” photos. And photographically printing, say, black and white photos is actually a subtractive process. We expose the photosensitive medium to light, then develop the exposed paper to turn the silver halide black, and we then stop the process and wash away the excess halides with “fixer”. Yet I’ve never seen any debates about whether printing black and white photos in a dark room is “printing”.
