Engraving guide

Fine engraving works best with clear, simple designs. A few small choices make a big difference on a pendant that is only 20mm across.

Choosing a photo

  • Show the face or front. Eyes, nose and mouth in view. For pets, a front or three-quarter view works best.
  • Use good light. Soft daylight from a window. Avoid harsh shadows, flash glare and dark rooms.
  • Keep the background simple. A plain wall or sky is ideal. Busy backgrounds can distract from the face.
  • Sharp and close. Not blurry, not too far away. Crop in on your subject if you can.
  • One or two subjects. On a coin or heart, two faces are the most we recommend. For more, choose the tag.
  • No heavy filters. An original photo gives our engraving studio the most detail to work with.

We engrave your photo in thousands of fine dots, like a photograph on metal. Drag, zoom and adjust the brightness until it feels just like them.

Handwriting and drawings

  • Use dark ink or a felt-tip on plain white paper.
  • Take the photo straight on, in daylight, with the paper flat.
  • Short words and signatures engrave best. "Love, Mum" often says more than a paragraph.
  • Children's drawings with clear outlines work beautifully. Very light pencil may not show.

Text

Piece Size Text, about
Coin 20mm 50 characters
Heart 20×25mm 50 characters
Tag 22×39mm 50 characters
Vertical bar 10×40mm 25 characters
Horizontal bar 39×6mm 25 characters
3D bar 5×40mm 25 characters per side

To stay clear, letters need to be at least 1.5mm tall, or about 2mm for script fonts. The studio scales your text to fit and tells you if it is getting too small.

Star maps and constellations

Enter a date, time and place, and we draw the sky as it was, down to the horizon. Zodiac constellations and star maps suit the coin, heart and tag.

Street maps

Search for a place or use your location, then drag and zoom the map until it sits just right. The name sits on the map, and a small heart, pin, star or dot marks the spot. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Fingerprints

An ink pad or a soft pencil gives the clearest print. Roll the fingertip once onto plain white paper and photograph it close up, with the print filling most of the photo. We keep every ridge exactly as it is.

Birth flowers, symbols and initials

Choose up to four birth flowers for a small bouquet, one for each person, with their names underneath. Or pick a symbol, such as a heart, a compass, mountains or a wave, with a name or date. For initials, choose the two letters and what sits between them: a heart, an open heart, &, + or infinity.

Fine details

  • Text, handwriting and drawings are engraved with lines at least 0.2mm wide. Star maps, street maps, fingerprints and the line art of flowers and symbols use finer hairlines.
  • We engrave close to the edge, keeping a slim margin of about half a millimetre, and right up to the loop.
  • Large solid areas don't engrave evenly. Clear photos and fine lines look best.

Unsure about your design? Email it to support@lovedpieces.com and we'll tell you honestly how it will look.