Exclusive, self-made Christmas card
Exclusive, self-made Christmas card
Learn how to create a modern and elegant Christmas card using your Trotec laser and a simple piece of paper. Surprise your dearest with an engraved and cut card.
Preparation
Required material
- Anything goes - achieve the best results with material with a paper weight of more than 150g. We used a noble, two-tone card from the GMUND 925 series.
Laser machine used
- Speedy 400
- 120 watts with 1.5" lens
You can use any product from the Speedy series to produce your cards. For larger quantities or serial production of greeting cards, the GS series is the best solution.
Important
- For perfect cutting results, please use the honeycomb cutting table. The minimum contact area reduces the residues on the back of the material to a minimum.
- Alternatively you can also use the aluminium cutting grid table.
Step by step
Step 1: Import/create design template
Create your own design or use our template. Due to the special characteristics of the paper we have been able to create two different levels of engraving. You can test this using the grayscale matrix.
PRINT SETTINGS
process mode | resolution | cut line |
---|---|---|
Standard | 500 dpi | none |
halftone | others |
---|---|
color | enhanced geometries inner geometries first |
Step 2: Laser process
Put the paper on the honeycomb cutting tabletop and cover the rest of the table. This ensures full vacuum of the engraving table and prevents the paper from shifting.
LASER PARAMETERS
colour | process | power (%) | speed (%) | ppi/HZ |
---|---|---|---|---|
black | engraving CO2 | 40 | 70 | 500 |
red | engraving CO2 | 14 | 70 | 500 |
blue | cutting CO2 | 5.0. | 3 | 1000 |
cyan | cutting CO2 | 5.1. | 1 | 1000 |
green | cutting CO2 | 15 | 3 | 1000 |
passes | Air Assist | Z-Offset | Advanced |
---|---|---|---|
1 | on | 0 | High Quality |
1 | on | 0 | High Quality |
1 | on | 0 | - |
1 | on | 0 | Correction "30" |
1 | on | 0 | - |
Info:
- The laser parameters vary depending on the type of paper you are using. Use the grayscale matrix to find the optimum parameters for your paper.
- For perfect cutting results we used different laser parameters for the complex geometries of the tree and the outer contour of the card.
Step 3: Post-processing
The crease line allows you to easily fold the card. Some types of paper tend to produce traces of smoke. In most cases they can be removed with a damp cloth.
Inspiration
- The Trotec laser allows you to add the recipients' names on the card simply and quickly. The serial print function of CorelDraw allows you to add a complete list of different names automatically.