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Michael Simpson Virgina
05-17-2009, 5:15 PM
I have been asked by a local tile store to do some artistic tiles from around the area.

This is the first.

Its a photo of the top of the Leesburg courthouse.

In Photoshop I added the brushstrokes.
In Photoshop I resampled to 300DPI and sized to 4"
In Photoshop I converted to grayscale and used curves to brighten a bit
I then saved as a jpg at highest quality.
Loaded into Corel and cropped so tat it would fit on tile.

Using a flat white Home Depot 16 cent tile I engraved at 50% power and 100% speed at 600DPI using Standard Dithering.

Up scaling to 600DPI is important as the images is gray scale and will be converted to dithering. This really helps get that photo look.

Once complete I cleaned the tile and wiped on some cheap Walmart $1.69 per bottle of black acrylic paint. You have to work fast as this stuff drys quickly. I did a lot of rubbing and in some cases rubbed off the images. This gives the tile an antique look and also means that no two attempts will look exactly the same.

After 24 hours the acrylic paint seems to be really durable. Not sure how much but I cant scratch it off with my finger nail. For an artistic piece thats good enough.

I took it into the tile store and they guys loved it. I was a little concerned about it not being perfectly centered and they said "No its perfect and could I off set all pieces randomly as it makes it seem more hand done.

This particular tile sold for $58. Not sure how good that is by engraving standards but once I get the workflow perfected I can do them at a reasonable pace.

Dave Johnson29
05-17-2009, 5:30 PM
This particular tile sold for $58. Not sure how good that is by engraving standards but once I get the workflow perfected I can do them at a reasonable pace.

Mike,

Very nice. If they didn't balk too much at the $58 why change? You are probably only talking a few bucks a piece as the laser-time should not change.

You have a lot invested in the machine and you have to account for tube replacements after the warranty expires. Start saving for it now.

Just my $0.008 worth.

Michael Simpson Virgina
05-17-2009, 6:22 PM
I did not mean that I would change my price. I was just wondering if that is enough for my time and equipment for a 4.25" tile.

Martin Boekers
05-17-2009, 7:37 PM
I think $58 is great!

$.16 for the tile, a couple cents for the paint, maybe 5 minutes on set-up, a few minutes to burn and another 5 to clean up.

I'm sure many of us would love to sell tiles at $58.

I'm starting to do 8x10 tiles from Home Depot ($1.08) CLT with a spray protective coat with historic images of the base.

If I can get $25ea I'll be happy:)


Marty

Michael Simpson Virgina
05-17-2009, 8:22 PM
What are you coating them with?

Michael Simpson Virgina
05-17-2009, 8:28 PM
Engraving tiles was not the main reason I purchased this machine. It just seems that every where I go people want to through custom work at me.

I went into another tile/flooring store and they gave me a bunch of granit so they could show some of there customers. Seems they get alot of requests to do specialized stuff when they make a big tile sale.

Dan Hintz
05-17-2009, 10:03 PM
I then saved as a jpg at highest quality.
I would get out of the habit of doing this. You were okay saving it at the highest quality, but you should get into the habit of saving it in a lossless format such as TIFF (make sure lossless compression is selected for those programs that support compression levels on TIFF images).

Martin Boekers
05-21-2009, 7:10 PM
Mike I use a spary clear laquer usually a semi-gloss.

Haven't tested it for outdoors but it's fine for interior use.

Marty

kyna cass
06-07-2009, 2:21 AM
Could I please ask what lense size you are using on this job ? I only have a 2.0 lense on a VL 200 30W . I think I would have to adjust the power to be more than 50% like you have used . I'm interested in trying this technique.
I think thats a great markup on your tile investment !

James Stokes
06-07-2009, 8:54 AM
The first laser I bought I bought for the express pourpose of engraving tiles, I was a tile setter for 20 years and I felt sure I could sell Them in the tile market I did everything I could to sell in that market. I had displays in every flooring store in town, Everyone thought the samples looked great and I did sell a few but not many, Just could not get any money out of anyone.

Tim Bateson
06-07-2009, 9:25 AM
I have a couple tiles that I've used for over a year in the kitchen for hot dishes. One is mutli-colored acrylic spray paint and the other was black acrylic primer with Spar Clear Semi-Gloss Urethane for an antique look.

Larry Bratton
06-07-2009, 1:30 PM
I have been asked by a local tile store to do some artistic tiles from around the area.

This is the first.

Its a photo of the top of the Leesburg courthouse.

In Photoshop I added the brushstrokes.
In Photoshop I resampled to 300DPI and sized to 4"
In Photoshop I converted to grayscale and used curves to brighten a bit
I then saved as a jpg at highest quality.
Loaded into Corel and cropped so tat it would fit on tile.

Using a flat white Home Depot 16 cent tile I engraved at 50% power and 100% speed at 600DPI using Standard Dithering.

Up scaling to 600DPI is important as the images is gray scale and will be converted to dithering. This really helps get that photo look.

Once complete I cleaned the tile and wiped on some cheap Walmart $1.69 per bottle of black acrylic paint. You have to work fast as this stuff drys quickly. I did a lot of rubbing and in some cases rubbed off the images. This gives the tile an antique look and also means that no two attempts will look exactly the same.

After 24 hours the acrylic paint seems to be really durable. Not sure how much but I cant scratch it off with my finger nail. For an artistic piece thats good enough.

I took it into the tile store and they guys loved it. I was a little concerned about it not being perfectly centered and they said "No its perfect and could I off set all pieces randomly as it makes it seem more hand done.

This particular tile sold for $58. Not sure how good that is by engraving standards but once I get the workflow perfected I can do them at a reasonable pace.
That's an interesting process. I am curious to know though, why did you save it as a jpg. JPGs are notoriously "lossy" file types. Each time it is saved and compressed, you lose data and thus quality. I personally would go with the Photoshop PSD or tiff. EPS is a good file format also, especially if you have both vector and bitmap images in the same document.

Michael Simpson Virgina
06-07-2009, 2:33 PM
When a JPG is saved at the highest setting its not that bad. Its no where near as bad as you guys are making it out to be. If I can print a jpg image at well over poster size I can certanly engrave it. I have seen absolutly no artifacts in any of my engravings.

All my original photos are in Raw format. I also have my non lossy photoshop versions. I only save to jpg when I am sending to Corel. It wont get modified or saved again.

Also I might add I now do 90% of my engraving directly from photoshop so its mute.

Larry Bratton
06-07-2009, 3:45 PM
Michael:
If it works for you that's great. It was not meant as an attack, I was just curious as to why, known that jpgs are "lossy" and you already have it in Photoshop why not save it as a PSD? That of course preserves any photoshop layers or attibutes you may have created and since you are engaving from PS anyway. JPG is a great format for online and e-mail purposes for which is was originally created.

Michael Simpson Virgina
06-07-2009, 10:08 PM
Sorry I did not mean to be so gruff. Oftain I sound that way cause I am in a real hurry.

My PSD's are very complicated and have several layers. Corel can not handle opening them. When it does successfully get one open its often all messed up. Corel is a great drawing program but its use with norm.

Yes JPG is a lossy format. But I have found that using it as a single use. (IE save for printing display) it works very well and just about any program can handle it. If you save a JPG at its highest quality (12 for Photoshop CS3 and CS4) You will be hard pressed to see the artifacts unless you pixel peak.

I agree that you dont want to save in JPG format between versions. You are correct that each time you load the JPG and save it after modifications you will loose quality.

But for transfer for printing and engraving there is nothing wrong with doing this way.

I have been doing digital photoagraphy for a very long time. I owned one of the very first DSLRs and scanned photos well before that. JPGS have come a long way since then. I know many professional photographers who only capture in JPG format and not RAW. I dont but can undstand some of the reasons why they do.

Dan Hintz
06-08-2009, 10:14 AM
You are correct that each time you load the JPG and save it after modifications you will loose quality.
I'd like to add that any loss of quality (perceptible or not) is localized to the modified area (assuming it is saved with the same quality factor setting and no setting is chosen to keep file size to a specific value).

Michael Simpson Virgina
06-08-2009, 11:46 AM
@Kyna
I am using a standard 2.0" lens for this.