Engraving is a tonal process pretending to be a line process. A laser burns at different intensities, but what the eye reads is the boundary between light and dark. Detail that works beautifully in print often turns into a grey blur when burned into wood. We prepare artwork specifically for that.
Our approach
- Tonal shading converted to clean, deliberate line work or stipple
- Gaps sized to your actual laser spot so light areas stay light
- Fine detail removed where it would burn into a grey haze
- Simplified versions for small plaques and for large signage
Where engraving artwork is used
Wooden signs and plaques, acrylic and anodised aluminium nameplates, metal tags, leather goods, product branding, awards, memorial pieces, industrial part marking and packaging. If it is going to be burned rather than printed, it needs preparing differently from print artwork.
Contrast and reversal
Tell us whether you are engraving into the material or removing a coating to expose a lighter layer beneath, because the artwork inverts between the two. Most studios get this wrong and then run a test plate to find out. We can supply artwork in either direction, and a reversed version for a second process if you need both.
Test plates
If you are still tuning your machine settings, we can prepare artwork specifically for test plates, with the features you need to judge focus, power and speed clearly separated.