How much success have you guys had using cermark with a logo that has gradients?
My situation is that I have an advertising agency who wants a logo engraved on the back of an iPod Touch for one of their clients. The logo was color, primarily shades of light blue with multiple gradients, so I converted it to gray scale. I also ran it through Photograve on the Cherry setting. 75W laser, 600 DPI, 20 SP 100 P.
I didn't have the nerve to shoot the iPod right away, so I'm practicing on a scrap piece of chromed material. I don't like any of the results I have yielded so far. I started by trying the settings posted about iPod Touches on this forum a little while ago that used 1200/40/30, and it all washed off of my test piece. When I used my settings above, the cermark adhered OK, but it was so dark that all of the detail from the gradients was lost. More specifically, the lightest part of the gradients washed away, and the solid black areas remained. I'm reluctant to bounce down to 300 because the gradients look so grainy in Corel (after PhotoGrav) and I don't think the client will be pleased with the logo. For the record, I applied the cermark with an airbrush, and I thinned it in advance.
Off the top of my head, my problems could be (1) my test piece isn't chromed well, (2) I'm still putting the Cermark on too thick and (3) my power/speed settings are still off. I'm prepared to run more experiments because I'd like to land this client, but it will be futile if the truth is that you can't get smooth gradients using cermark. So back to my initial question - what is your experience with gradients and cermark on chrome/iPod Touches?
Thanks,
Rob