Design Tips For Laser Engraved Tumblers
Laser Engraving Basics
Laser engraving removes the material from the product to produce a high quality image. All of our tumblers are powder coated, when engraving this outer layer is removed. This allows your design to show through as the stainless steel tumbler itself. This means that the only colors that will show are the color of the powder coat and the stainless steel.
Transparency Is Key
- Unlike other forms of printing, your designs need to be black with no background for laser engraving. Where there is black in the design, that will be removed on the tumbler. Producing the desired design. Where there is no graphic, the powder coat will remain. If the image isn’t transparent, the file will read as a solid image when uploaded.
All of the above designs will upload as a solid square on the tumbler..
The above design, with the transparent background, will give you the best results!
Black Images ONLY
- To avoid and issues with shading, it’s best to stick with solid black images. This not only gives you a true understanding of how the design will look, but it will prevent any issues in your design from using shading or other forms of textures. As these will not show up in the design itself. Design elements using opacity changes will also not show up on the tumbler.
Positive/Negative Images
- Understanding positive and negative space in your design, will allow you to change what part of the powder coat is removed.
Example 1
Example 2
Quality Matters
- When it comes to tumblers, Simpler is Better! Not to say that your design won’t come out if it’s very detailed, but a laser engraved tumbler truly shines when it has the ability to shine! The more metal backing that can be seen the more heads you’ll turn with your designs. Maintaining a good balance of “positive” and “negative” space, will not only give you the best design, but will add tremendous dimensional presence.
As mentioned, detail will come out in the design. But an overly complex design with gradients will lead to the design being chipped.
Bold Is Better
Small or thin text might now always be as visible on the final product as they are in the mockup. The best way to avoid this is by using a bold font compared to a thin font. As we mentioned, the more metal that your design lets through, the more it will shine!
Thin Text Tumbler vs Bold Text Tumbler
