Laser Etching a Photo

Laser marking photographs is not something that we have to do very often in our job shop business here at Jimani. There isn't a ton of demand for laser marked photos, but, since we have done this sort of procedure before, I thought I would address some of the challenges in that process.

Laser marking a photo can be a tedious process. Fiber lasers mark in black and white and image dithering schemes must be used to simulate the gray scale shades in photographs. Fiber lasers don't have the same response to power level changes needed for true gray scale marking as do CO2 lasers and, because of this, dithering schemes are used to approximate gray scale marking with a fiber laser. A CO2 laser can mark in gray scale but has less detail than the fiber laser. The image of the tiger was marked with a CO2 laser using gray scale marking and the image of the girl was marked with a fiber laser using a dithering scheme. In both images,the substrate was black, anodized aluminum.

The CO2 laser marking systems from Jimani are versatile marking systems marking on a wide range of materials, including:

• glass
• wood
• paint removal
• plastics
• leather
• organic materials

Langolier fiber laser marking systems, on the other hand, are a reliable, easy to use, and easy to maintain engraving solution. A Jimani Langolier laser marking system is a turnkey system and flexible tool for space challenged manufacturing and processing environments. All Langolier fiber laser marking systems are also supplied with Prolase, a user friendly, proven, robust laser marking software package very easy to use for importing and manipulating graphics files for brands, logos, and schematic files.

So, while both laser marking systems offer benefits and advantages for a wide range of laser marking applications, laser etching photos is a delicate process. Both laser marking systems, however, can be used to laser etch a photo, but it does take some adjustments. You can read more about the specific process we used to laser etch a photo by clicking here.