Certain key words will trigger my suspicions when it comes to photos. If someone says to you that the they got the logo from the internet you know instinctively that you are probably going to have problems. Yes I will take the photo but i need to go through a check list to make sure that I have a photo that is sufficient for me to process. So you know what those so called one click photos programs just are not going to work.įor me if I was taking photos from customers it would be like taking logos from them also.

You get more bad photos than good photos. Guess what the same thing happens with photos. What they forgot to tell you was is that you rarely get good artwork. It sort of reminds me of the days of the one click scan to vector we used to hear about – and still do – where programs claimed (so does CorelDraw now) that one click can create a vector image out of a scanned logo. This is why I get upset when people run around claiming that their software is the be all to end all. Do you really want to have the one bad photo go on a $125 urn and ruin it? I did not think so. I have used this type of software before and it never can be perfect. These programs can help you but you really need to look at other factors before you use them. The problem is that people just assume that this software is the panacea that they have been looking for. Which leads me to say that I am not a real fan of “the one click software”. Hopefully I can clear up some of the confusion that rains down on this topic – and not only in our industry. Which is why I am doing this series of articles. Why they are hit and miss can be caused by a number of factors and when you understand these factors you can achieve a better chance of getting it right.

However my experience with these programs is that they are again hit and miss. This tweaking can give you better results. PhotoLaser and PhotoGrav have gone one step further in that they will also give you the ability to tweak the image from within their software and have it try and display the image on a simulated display of the material you are working on. Programs such as PhotoLaser Plus, 1 Touch Photo and PhotoGrav provide these so called one click fits all solutions. There are some off the shelf programs that have tried to make doing photos easier but they tend to have mixed results. Part of the problem is that there are so many substrates to work on and so many different types of photographs. Reproducing photos is not easy – even for those of us who have done a lot of it. One of the biggest issues that faces us as engravers is reproducing photos onto a variety of products.

Laser Engraving or Sublimating Photographs

Alternative software to photograv