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Keith Upton
02-26-2014, 2:19 PM
I'd like to engrave the logo below and have each color engrave to a different depth (not 3D engraving). I know I just have to assign each color a different power/speed setting. My re questions are, how much difference do I need between those setting for the different colors and which colors would I need to burn more to keep the appearance.

Or would it be best to convert it to a black and white (gray scale) image and then just ensure there is enough tonal difference between the "colors" that they would engrave differently?


283410

Gary Hair
02-26-2014, 2:35 PM
The answer would depend on the material you are engraving, wood, acrylic, etc. However, I wouldn't try to laser everything and hope to get good results. I would probably laser the outer (red) circle, the text, a line between the black and white area, the red part and a line between the blue/green area and also between the black/green area. Unless you paint fill afterwards I can't see how different depths are going to give you enough contrast to look good.

Mark Sipes
02-26-2014, 3:31 PM
Have you considered Sublimation .........

.

Keith Upton
02-26-2014, 4:02 PM
The answer would depend on the material you are engraving, wood, acrylic, etc. However, I wouldn't try to laser everything and hope to get good results. I would probably laser the outer (red) circle, the text, a line between the black and white area, the red part and a line between the blue/green area and also between the black/green area. Unless you paint fill afterwards I can't see how different depths are going to give you enough contrast to look good.

Thanks. This will be out of 3mm Birch. I had not thought about keeping the blue and green the same color and just engraving a line to separate them. You have me now thinking about just three "levels" of engraving. Blue/green being the first level of engraving (whites will not be engraved at all), all the reds a little deeper as level 2 and finally black as the deepest and 3rd level. The missile inside the red area would changed to white so that it was not engraved either.


Have you considered Sublimation .........

.

Thanks Mark, but I want to do this on the laser. That's the logo for my day job and I wanted to engrave some name plates for me and my co-workers to put on the cubicles.

Dee Gallo
02-26-2014, 4:11 PM
You can easily make the areas look different by making them different % blacks. First, decide which area you want to appear the lightest, next darkest, etc. Leave your whites white and your blacks black. Assign the red, green and blue areas something like 30%, 55% and 80%. Then add a black or white line (at least .5 or more!)between the colored areas, depending on whether you want the line to stand out or recede. Make the tiny yellow in the "star" plain white or it will disappear.

Don't rely on the laser program to convert the colors, as red commonly reads as black, green and blue commonly read the same as each other. You won't get as much control over the design as you like.

Do a test and tweak the percentages until you are happy. A test can be as simple as a few bars with the percentages labelled or type the "30%" out in a nice fat font like Arial Black at 24 pt. and fill with the right color.

Here is an example of how the different greys can appear on wood. You can also use gradations of fill.

David Somers
02-26-2014, 4:39 PM
Mark.....I thought psychologists disproved the effectiveness of the use of Subliminal messages ages ago????
<grin>

Dave

Mike Null
02-26-2014, 4:39 PM
I would use reverse engravable acrylic and color fill per the logo.

Keith Upton
02-26-2014, 5:55 PM
You can easily make the areas look different by making them different % blacks. First, decide which area you want to appear the lightest, next darkest, etc. Leave your whites white and your blacks black. Assign the red, green and blue areas something like 30%, 55% and 80%. Then add a black or white line (at least .5 or more!)between the colored areas, depending on whether you want the line to stand out or recede. Make the tiny yellow in the "star" plain white or it will disappear.

Don't rely on the laser program to convert the colors, as red commonly reads as black, green and blue commonly read the same as each other. You won't get as much control over the design as you like.

Do a test and tweak the percentages until you are happy. A test can be as simple as a few bars with the percentages labelled or type the "30%" out in a nice fat font like Arial Black at 24 pt. and fill with the right color.

Here is an example of how the different greys can appear on wood. You can also use gradations of fill.

Dee, how do I assign the different colors a % of black? Do I convert it to gray scale first and then what? Sorry, new to Corel.

Mike Chance in Iowa
02-26-2014, 7:15 PM
I haven't tried this, but besides for using different shades of gray (50%, 70% 100%) for the colors, you might be able to use different DPI for the colors. Engrave the black part at 1200 dpi while the green at 400 dpi. The negative I see with that is you may have to send multiple print jobs at different DPI settings while the different shades of gray could all be the same DPI and one print job.

Dee Gallo
02-26-2014, 7:50 PM
Keith,

This is a simple design. You are best off manually tracing it and filling the shapes with grays. That is the most effective way to get clean lines with a minimum of nodes. If you have never done this, this is a great time to learn. Step one is to place the sample graphic and lock it. Making the circle is easy and obvious. Just make a circle any size close to the design. Get close enough to see well and adjust the size and shape, making sure the vertical and horizontal measurements are the same. You need three circles. Don't bother adjusting the line thickness or fill until everything is drawn. Group and lock so they don't get moved in the next steps.

Use the line tool to make the blue and green shapes. Click on the "corners" of one shape (high points of curves, wherever the line changes direction) , then select all nodes and convert the line to curves. Adjust the curve to match the sample. Do the other shape the same way. Group and lock again.

Make the red shape last, so it will be on top when you fill. Click on each corner and point of the star. Convert to curves. Pull the nodes to make the shape match the sample. Click on the small yellow shape and do the same thing to shape it. Group them.

Now Save. Unlock all. Select the circles and ungroup them. Align text to path, and type your words along the middle circle. Choose your font and size to match (don't just stretch) Move them to center with the red diamond. Pull them away from the circle to the correct position.

I know this sounds harder than it really is. You really need to know how to do this if you plan to do any work. So take your time and be patient as you learn CorelDraw.

After you have made all the elements, you can select all, ungroup and start to assign gray percentages and line thicknesses. The only reason I had you do so much grouping and locking is because new users can easily change stuff they don't want to change. But grouping is very handy when you understand it. The grays are in the color bar and you should use numbers which are at least 20 apart from each other so they look different enough to work. You should either use no line or 5 points or thicker, not hairline! Select a shape, click on the gray you want from the color bar and right click for a line color or "X" if you don't want a line. The bottom right corner will show you what you have assigned to that shape.

In the time it's taken me to type all this, I could have done the design. With experience, you will gain speed and efficiency.

Good luck and keep asking questions! I apologize if this info is not what you were looking for...maybe too much information!

cheers, dee

Dee Gallo
02-26-2014, 9:00 PM
Here is your logo, not the perfect font, but close. My mouse broke in the middle so... I was limping along. It is saved in v.9 so any CD can open it. Personally, I think the lines around the blue and green should be black so they are carved out instead of standing out (which white will do)

Keith Upton
02-27-2014, 8:28 AM
Thanks Dee. You did not have to go through all that trouble though. I feel kinda bad because I had a version of that logo that was already separated out into individual components. I typically use Illustrator to create graphics and Corel to send them to the laser (can't get AI to "print" to the laser). As such, I never even noticed that the grey color swatches in Corel already had a % value assigned to them and I only need to hover over them to see what they were. Sorry about that.

Before you post those replies, I did get a chance to play around with just assigning the different colors speed and power setting and started to get some decent results. If I have time today I'll try your grey method as well.

One thing I have seen mentioned here on the site (but maybe that was in regards to 3D engraving) was "over burning" the whole image with a lower power and speed to clean the cuts up some. Can anyone shed some more light on that?

Dan Hintz
02-27-2014, 10:08 AM
One thing I have seen mentioned here on the site (but maybe that was in regards to 3D engraving) was "over burning" the whole image with a lower power and speed to clean the cuts up some. Can anyone shed some more light on that?

I'm not sure I know of the specific term being used, but for more darkness you can often burn out of focus (and often at a lower power). If I want to clean up (engraved) cuts, though, I turn to vector-cutting the edges.