1" logo bleeding

[Joe Baker]

I have a logo that i am trying to engrave on a coated metal. The surface engaves very nice but the words in the logo are bleeding into each other. The logo is appx 1" in size. I have a 30w Laserpro C180 that i am running at 30% speed/ 75% power. Any thoughts??

[Sandra Force]

Can you post of photo? I think that you need to increase the spacing to solve the bleeding but couldn't tell with out seeing what you are talking about.

[Mike Null]

1. Try increasing your speed and lowering your power.
2. Try lowering your resolution.
3. Should be first but check your focus.
4. Check your optics for cleanliness.
5. Check your graphic to be sure the problem isn't there.

[Joe Baker]

attached. first time i posted a picture here

[Dee Gallo]

It looks to me like your lettering is actually anti-aliased bitmap, not vector or bezier lines. So the "smoothing" feature is engraving as a fuzzy outline. You need to trace the shapes to get a cleaner line.

cheers, dee

[Joe Baker]

Ouch Dee. I cant speak that language yet

[Scott Shepherd]

Joe, how was the image supplied to you? Was it a .jpg file? If so, that's what Dee is getting at. That format is not the right format for engraving in this situation. You'd need them to supply a file that is either an Adobe Illustrator file or an EPS file. You can import either of those and there's a great chance it's the program that it was originally created in.

[Dee Gallo]

Ouch Dee. I cant speak that language yet

Sorry Joe.

Bitmap images are made up of small squares (dots/pixels). Each dot on your screen can be ON (black or color) or OFF (white or transparent). They make those jagged edges you see unless there is smoothing (anti-aliasing) done, which looks like lighter grey squares if you look at a close-up. jpegs are bitmaps. Paint and photo programs produce bitmaps also. Corel-PAINT is an example of this type of progam. Examples: jpg, tif, gif

Line art images are made from straight lines and/or bezier curves (adjustable curved lines). This is known as "object oriented" art because each shape is a separate object which can be moved separately, sized/edited separately and grouped/ungrouped. Draw programs produce this kind of art; Corel-DRAW is an example of this type of program, also Illustrator, FreeHand. Examples: eps, cdr, ai

Hope this helps to explain things a bit, dee

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Joe;
Dee nailed this one. Import your image into Corel and scale it way up. You will see that there are gray jaggies all over the place-which the laser sees even if you can't. It's only engraving what you gave it.
Here's a quick trace which should be a lot better.

[Dave Russell Smith]

This is my 10 cents worth

[Doug Griffith]

It does look like anti-aliasing but the sheer nature of photographing/scanning and posting an image online will introduce anti-aliasing to the image we're looking at. It could also be a problem with the coating melting into itself. We don't know what the coating is.

[Dee Gallo]

I just looked at my manual and they recommend the opposite settings for anodized and painted brass (100 speed/45 power), like Mike said. What is the metal coated with? That might give you some answers too.

cheers, dee

[Joe Baker]

its an anodized aluminum. I understand some of what you guys are saying. I use engravelab. I have used the attached image .gif. the image does show up in the software and it does not look as smooth as the .jpg images. If i understand you guys correctly that is a good thing?

This is prob going to be a stupid question but i cant use a corel draw image in Engravelab correct? If i remember correct Dee, you use nothing but Engravelab

[Scott Shepherd]

Joe, that's not going to work. The image you are trying to use is not in the right format. It's possible to engrave gif's and jpegs, but they have to be the right size/quality for what you are engraving.

In your case, I do not believe it is.

You need the Illustrator, Corel, or other files that they were originally created in. Ask them for a EPS (3 letters, not one word). The person that created that should have the capability to do it in that format.

You can then import it into Corel, or should be able to import into Engravelab and go to the printer from there.

[Dee Gallo]

This is prob going to be a stupid question but i cant use a corel draw image in Engravelab correct? If i remember correct Dee, you use nothing but Engravelab

Nope, sorry - I do not use Engravelab. I have PhotoGrav but I don't use that either. Maybe Engravelab has a "save as" feature?

The web image you just posted would be a good one to practice your manual tracing on - no time like the present!

Just make a line, convert to a curve and pull into shape. If you lock your image, you can draw right over it and it won't be a problem to you (moving around by accident). I posted a tracing tutorial here some time ago, which you can find with a search.

cheers, dee