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Brian Leavitt
03-24-2016, 4:07 PM
I've had this leather bound plaque sitting around for a while. One of our vendors sent it to us as a sample, though I can't remember which one. I's been sitting next to my computer because I didn't know what to do with it. Today I decided I'd see how it'd look engraved so I did this photo on it. It actually came out better than I had expected. Just thought I'd share...

Bert Kemp
03-24-2016, 4:52 PM
Looks great Brian would guess its Veg Tan leather.

One of the girls that rides in the PGR with us saw a patch she liked and asked if I could do it on leather for her and she wanted Purple. Well this happened by accident, I dyed the leather purple and engraved it but I was really disappointed because the dark purple made the engraving barley visible and I was about to throw it away and start again with a lighter dye when I had a bright Idea to see if I could paint fill it. I always put 2 coats of leather sheen on before I engrave so I put some acrylic paint I had on it and wiped off the excess and the results surprised me. The was 3 oz (thin) Veg tanned leather dyed purple.
334437What do ya think? You could barley see the engraving till I painted it :)

Brian Lamb
03-24-2016, 10:13 PM
I tried some leather the other day too.... I happen to do Weimaraner rescue, so tried an image from a card I had gotten....

334473

Bert Kemp
03-25-2016, 12:44 AM
WOW! that came out awesome.:)



I tried some leather the other day too.... I happen to do Weimaraner rescue, so tried an image from a card I had gotten....

334473

Chris DeGerolamo
03-25-2016, 9:14 AM
Those all look pretty good. One thing I have found to make a big difference, much like on glass, run the art at 80% black instead of 100% and you'll get finer details.

Brian Lamb
03-25-2016, 9:46 AM
Hi Bert,

I was rather impressed too, but I have to say, the artist that made the cards is incredible. I was able to scan and then just print as is. So far I have not had as good of luck with converting photographs to engrave.

Bert Kemp
03-25-2016, 10:01 AM
Do you us Universals 1 touch photo software?



Hi Bert,

I was rather impressed too, but I have to say, the artist that made the cards is incredible. I was able to scan and then just print as is. So far I have not had as good of luck with converting photographs to engrave.

Ruben Salcedo
03-25-2016, 10:01 PM
I've had this leather bound plaque sitting around for a while. One of our vendors sent it to us as a sample, though I can't remember which one. I's been sitting next to my computer because I didn't know what to do with it. Today I decided I'd see how it'd look engraved so I did this photo on it. It actually came out better than I had expected. Just thought I'd share...

Nice Job, that looks like the JDS plaque made of faux leather, what software did you use to dither the final image?

Brian Lamb
03-25-2016, 10:48 PM
Have not tried the Universal Laser One-Touch software, read about it on their website, but haven't taken the plunge yet. Do you, or anyone else reading this use it and have anything to say about it? If it could speed up the trial and error I'm running into now, it might be worth it.

Roger Lueck
03-26-2016, 10:08 PM
Bert, what "leather sheen" did you use before you engraved the leather?

Bert Kemp
03-27-2016, 12:08 AM
Its Called leather Sheen from Tandy I've also seen it on ebay and amazon


Bert, what "leather sheen" did you use before you engraved the leather?

Chris DeGerolamo
03-27-2016, 12:27 PM
Its Called leather Sheen from Tandy I've also seen it on ebay and amazon

or Mop n Glo :)

Bert Kemp
03-27-2016, 7:50 PM
mop and glo will harden crack when flexed:rolleyes:

Brian Leavitt
03-28-2016, 10:20 AM
I've always used PhotoGrav for images, Ruben. I don't do them very often. PhotoGrav with manual settings is how I go.

Michele Welch
03-28-2016, 2:16 PM
Wow, I'm so jealous of all these great results. I can't, for the life of me, get a photograph to come out that great. I've used all the work arounds through Photoshop and Illy, and I can't afford Photograv. I want to do photos, but just seem to have a mental block when it comes to getting them right.

These photos on this thread are just amazing - great job.

Roger Lueck
04-24-2016, 12:39 AM
I received an e-mail announcing that PhotoGrav 3.1 is now available. I believe it will only work with Windows 7 and newer OS, therefore if you are still using XP, you may be out of luck.

Don Corbeil
04-25-2016, 10:22 PM
yes, some nice leather work!

Abe Levinson
04-30-2016, 4:39 PM
Hi Michele. If you are using Photoshop convert the image to a 300 DPI grayscale bitmap. Depending on the image you may want to play with your contrast settings to make it "pop" a little better. Then when your are laser engraving make sure your DPI is also set to 300 and your Frequency or PPI is set to no more than 400. I think you will be happy with the results.

Bill Cunningham
05-24-2016, 10:27 PM
Leather is one of those materials like real marble that do not need any fancy conversion or dithering software like photograv. The normal photo mode on most lasers will do great photos. You can start light, and increase power if needed. Black leather is the only problem I have. Because it's dyed, you never know what colour the etch will be until the beam hits it. I've had black etch everything from bright white to so dark you could barely see it.