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Engraving White And Black Graphics On Glass

Graphics are a part of many of the orders that we create, and we are happy to use customer supplied images for engraving on glassware. When a single-color graphic (or text) is viewed on a computer monitor, it is usually displayed on a pure white background. We will convert your artwork to pure black and remove the white background so we can create our engraving masks.  Click here to view photos of our engraving masks.


When working with a layout, we will engrave everything that has been converted to black in your final design. But, everything that we engrave on the glassware will appear in the single color of frosted white. Because of this, we sometimes achieve a "photo negative" effect.


With many graphics, this change doesn’t make much of a difference. In simple cases of line art, text, or silhouette-type graphics, the image will appear correct when engraved. However, there are certain graphics where the relative relationship between white and black needs to be preserved. Otherwise, the graphic will look like a photo negative in the final engraving.


In order to preserve the relative relationship between black and white, we may recommend that we invert the image before we engrave it. Review the following examples that help illustrate this point:

Graphic Polarity Graphic Polarity Graphic Polarity Graphic Polarity Graphic Polarity Graphic Polarity

Polarity is also important when engraving photographs. Please visit our Engraving Photographs page for more information.


Ultimately, we are happy to engrave images any way you wish—we simply want our customers to be aware of how their designs will look on glass.