My experience in the sign shop using AI, and our Mutoh CMYK printer, is that AI default full black is actually a grey. If you’re using vectors then the engraving won’t matter what color it’s set to when you bring it into the GFUI. Though if you’re turning into a raster image then yes that default AI full black will make a slightly lighter cut do to the “full black” the GFUI is looking for in the greyscale range.
The draft setting also makes it lighter than the other due to speed, power, and LPI
Nice! Some time ago I made a three-layer acrylic shadowbox but used scoring. Your engraving is the way to go. I lit each layer with LED’s ground down to the thickness of the acrylic to get good optical isolation between layers. Different colors were used for each layer.
Question: For engraving, is it possible to have the engrave depth vary linearly with height of the pattern? This could make illumination more uniform bottom-to-top. How to do this?
Good question I guess if you used a gradient fill instead of a solid black fill it would vary in depth. Go from 100% to 30% and you will have deeper engrave on the 100 with a slight engrave at the 30. Haven’t tried it, but now I want to. LOL
I did a slightly different take on this. I used my brother’s logo as the basis for the coasters, but I only did 3 layers of clear acrylic with a solid yellow coaster for a splash of color! Unfortunately I didn’t realize the clear acrylic I used was a thicker cut and the coasters were hard to get in and kinda stuck now. I will have to use a thinner acrylic next time. One is scored the other is engraved. I prefer the engraved one. Sorry for the horrible photos. Thank you arh2 for the base idea.
They look great! I love the idea of the solid color behind. I did one iteration of the coaster holder with a solid backplate but the wood was too dark and the coasters lost some of the look. Working on a new base with LEDs under it to light them up. Thank you for sharing your great design!!! Love the logo!