engraving advice

[Graham Taylor]

I need to engrave an image of Buddha (as close to the attached as possible) onto some clear acrylic.

I was going to reverse engrave it and then paint fill in white but I was wondering if it would be best to vector or raster engrave it (assuming I can get an image suitable).

In your collective opinion, which would produce the best result (I realise that it also depends on the quality of the image)?

Thanks for your advice,

[Bernie Fraser]

I would raster engrave it. I raster engraved a photo onto black acrylic and the filled with white paint and was happy with the result.

[Mike Null]

If you use cast acrylic there will be no need to color fill it.

I think you're going to have to spend some time retouching the photo to get any detail.

This is a raster only type engraving.

[Glen Monaghan]

Yep, use clear cast acrylic and you won't have to color fill. However, you probably will have to work the image dynamics if you want a really good result that isn't flat/washed out. That image looks like one that might give a zingy 3D effect if you spent the time to zmap it right, such that the power applied at each pixel is proportional to how close the pixel is to you (for example, a pixel on either knee is whiter than pixels on the raised hand, which are whiter than the pixels on the cheekbones, which themselves are whiter than the pixels on an ear. That way, the knees are engraved deeper than the raised hand, which is deeper than the cheekbones, which are deeper than the ears, and you get a 3D effect rather than just a picture. That's a lot of work to get right, but there may be some software now that could help with zmapping. Saw a lithophane app recently, wonder what it would do...

[Ross Moshinsky]

1. Cast acrylic engraves whitish. Based on your post, I don't think you need to even think about color filling.

2. Don't let the customer push you around too much. That image, based on what you posted, is not really a great candidate for engraving. You need to advise them that image quality is everything and that doesn't fit the bill. Then you have to push them in the right direction picking a better image.

3. Cast acrylic is cheap relatively cheap. Go buy a couple of sheets of 1/8"-1/4" thick stuff and play with it. To get a couple 12x24's shouldn't cost you more than £20.

[Mel Fulks]

I'm not an engraver . But that is a terrible image, way too flat and indistinct. I would insist on a better one,it's not like they are hard to find.

[Graham Taylor]

I am not planning to use that image, I just put it up here as an example. I am planning to invest some time tweaking the image using the various methods (i.e. The Gold method, Trotecs way and any other ones I can find) and then see how they compare.

I have plenty of time to get this done in between my regular work and loads of clear cast in 2, 3 and 5mm so will be interesting on testing the engraving depth