So I’ve been doing edge lit acrylics, they’re extremely popular amongst friends & family, but thus far I’ve only done black & white image engraves. Seeing as acrylic is mostly clear, is it possible to get a photo, with shades of gray engraved into acrylic?
Consider that the more dense the image is (a photo, for example), the less the light will be able to translate through it. You’re not likely to get results you’re after from a photograph. That said, if you dither it well-enough, you might be able to dial in something you’ll like. If you do, it’d be wonderful if you share your technique! 
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I’ve been able to do photos in clear acrylic for edge lighting by first inverting the image (photo negative) then just tweaking contrast/brightness depending on the photo to get a decent engrave.
Sometimes it takes a couple tries on the contrast/brightness tweaking. Usually I only need to increase the contrast a little, but sometimes increasing the brightness helps too. It really depends on the photo, so I can’t give you specifics.
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The image in question isn’t really a photograph in the normal sense… it’s not detail I’m necessarily looking for, but shading to offset where colors would originally be, if that makes any sense…
Here’s the image in question.
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Yes, it can engrave different depths. In your example pic I would adjust the different colors to get more contrast though. I think the large grey patch in the middle is awful close to black and you won’t be able to tell them apart.
For the most control over how it engraves you can break apart the image and make it so you can adjust each engraving setting individually. Or you can load the above image into the GUI, use the 3D engraving option and the the GF do it’s thing.
This is an early greyscale engraving I did before the 3D settings were available. It’s hard to tel in the pic, but there’s a lot of depth to it.
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