Designing an Acrylic Puzzle

When designing an image for an acrylic puzzle, there are a few things you will need:

• The PNG template for the Large Acrylic Shapes (cannot use other acrylic).
• Your image or photo.
• Your SVG cut file for the puzzle. If you are unsure of how to make one of these, there are some you can find in our design asset shop Here.
• And image editor, preferably with layers.

First, download the PNG template for the Large Acrylic Shapes: Open the template in your image editor of choice.
Next you will want to import your image/photo into your image editor. This will ensure that your image is the proper size.

Make sure your image goes from edge to edge, covering the entire canvas/template. If it does not, or cuts into your image, you will need to add bleed to your design. Learn about Bleed here:

https://help.thegamecrafter.com/article/391-bleed

Then save this image as a PNG.

Double Sided Printing

Next, you will need to save a back image. Not doing so can cause the ink to curl (see: Ink Curling below). 

If using an image that has some transparencies, or if you want the image to be mirrored on the back, make sure to flip your back image horizontal before saving it.

If you plan to print the puzzle edge to edge like the above example, you can have a unique image on the back.

Save your new image, this will be used as the back of the acrylic.

Printing with white

Just like other acrylic, clear cards and dice, if you want to print white, your white cannot be pure white. Pure white will be transparent. It is better to use #fefefe or a similarly off white color. You can learn more about that Here.

Paper Backing

All cut acrylic can come with a brown paper backing. 

This packing is there to help protect the acrylic from being scratched or damage. It is only attached by static cling and can be removed by running your nail along an edge and then peeling up the paper.

Laser Cutting

Because acrylic is cut with a laser, there are a few things to keep in mine that can effect how your puzzle will turn out.

• The laser can cause the edges of ink to curl if the ink is thin. This can cause an undesired effect. 
• More dense ink, like what you get when having printing for the face and back can reduce this. 
• Removing art around the cut lines is the only way to guarantee that there will be no ink curling, but this will make you vulnerable to drift.

This is why it is highly recommend to make sure your acrylic puzzle is printed double sided. When Large Acrylic Shapes are printed with front and back images, the back image is printed on the face, then a layer of white, then the face image. This give double the ink density, and helps reduce or prevent curling. 

Ink Curling

If the laser cuts any of the ink on your image, it may curl the edges of it, and will not leave a pleasant finish. This is why it is important to make sure to use the Double Sided printing on the Large Acrylic Shapes. The density of the extra ink will reduce the curling, giving you a nice finish. If you do not do this, your edges will have curled ink.

Examples of ink curling:

Example of the nice finish when using the double sided printing:

You can see that curling is either extremely minimal or non-existent.