iPad mini back engraving - First go with Totoro

I was a bit nervous going at it but decided it was time. Very limited info on the forum for this that I could find but I did come across one that said 1000speed 25power and 450lpi. This is how it turned out. I ended up inverting the colors since this ipad has an almost black coating on it. I was afraid that it was going to turn out wrong which I was right. Inverting turned out great. What I didnt like and I am not sure what caused it was at the very bottom it looks white and also the striping that occurred in just the mid section. My guess is that this coating is not as consistant as you would think and it caused this to happen. Not sure how to remedy it other than to maybe do a second pass to make sure it made it all the way through the coating. Let me know what you think and also any tips are appreciated.

You can see I wanted to be sure not to damage the camera and the face so I covered it in transfer tape.

Next will be to download the templates so that I can do a full ipad. I have 4 so 3 more to go. I also want to do my macbook and wifes as well.

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That’s pretty sweet. (I’m in the “waiting is still just waiting” club, but I can enjoy other’s projects. I like it.

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Turned out great! (Very brave of you!) :grinning:

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:sparkling_heart:Totoro!:two_hearts:

Ah, yes. Neko no basu. Excellent.

That turned out so cool! It was worth the risk, but I would have been nervous too. Well done :smiley:

I have seen similar banding before on other material so it may not be the coating on the iPad. (I know you mentioned that it was in the middle of the image, but I see it at the top of your engraving as well.) I have had it happen when I convert some images to black and white. Something happens during the dithering process that causes the banding and it’s only really visible when the image is zoomed in or out. I haven’t really investigated why or how it happens though, I just know I’ve had it happen several times. Did you dither the image yourself before sending it to the GF or did you have the GF convert it to dots or pattern perhaps? I have no idea if it’s the same thing I’ve experienced, but brought it up becasue it looks similar.

FWIW, the white patch at the bottom looks like it starts at the curve of the case. That might have caused the different look.

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This looks great!! I’m doing a MacBook tonight, so these settings are helpful!! Thanks!!

I did end up rasterizing the photo myself. Maybe I should try a few different options. I have been rasterizing the photo and then saving as a pdf. I probably can just save the photo as a pdf as jpg give me all kinds of trouble.

If someone out there has a good process that would be awesome. I used to use Illustrator alone but I could not easily do what I needed with this photo which was to invert the colors and eliminate the background in which I was able to do in less than 2 minutes in Photoshop. I then saved it there and went to illustrator. Maybe that was my downfall.

My daughter wants another Totoro on the upper side of the ipad so I will give it a second go. Then I have another mini to play with before I go to my Air and Pro. I also plan to do my macbook which I just cant find a good design yet.