How To Get the Perfect Jewellery Engraving

Choosing to create a piece of personalised jewellery, especially one engraved with something meaningful, is always something you want to get right. Often, you’re engraving words or an image that carries real meaning, something precious you want to hold close for your own reasons, so you deserve to know the finished piece will come back looking exactly as you hoped.

This guide walks you through how to get the perfect jewellery engraving, covering handwriting, photos, fingerprints and paw prints, along with how many words will fit on each piece so you know exactly what to expect before you order.

A Quick Answer: How to Get the Perfect Jewellery Engraving

• Take a clear, well-lit photo of the handwriting, image or print you’d like engraved, avoiding shadows or glare
• Fill the frame with just the wording or print itself, rather than the whole card, photo or paper
• Use an inkless print kit for the clearest, smudge-free fingerprints and paw prints
• Check how many words fit on your chosen piece before you order, since sizing varies by item
• Engrave both sides of a charm, or choose a larger piece like a keyring, if your message runs long

What Can Be Engraved on Memorial Jewellery?

Every piece we engrave starts with something you send us, and what that something is changes depending on what you’re hoping to keep close. Handwriting, photos and prints each work a little differently, so it helps to know which one suits what you have before you choose.

Handwriting Jewellery

A handwriting engraving takes the shape of someone’s writing exactly as they wrote it, like a signature or a short message, rather than turning it into a printed font. A lot of people choose this because handwriting is so personal since no one else writes an “I love you” or signs their name quite the way your person did, so having it engraved means you get to keep that exact detail with you rather than a version of it.

Photo Jewellery

With a photo keepsake, we’ll etch your chosen image directly onto the piece, so you can keep a face or a moment close rather than just words. It works best with a clear, high-contrast photo, since fine detail can be harder to capture in such a small space. People often choose this option when a photo captures something words can’t quite manage, like a familiar smile or a moment that you want to be able to revisit, and having it on a piece you wear means that image stays close rather than tucked away in an album.

Fingerprint and Paw Print Jewellery

Fingerprint and paw print engraving captures the exact pattern of someone’s print, human or animal, and recreates it onto your chosen piece so that unique detail stays with you for good. Since every print is different, the clarity of the print you send us makes a big difference to the finished result. A lot of people choose this because a print is something only that person or pet ever had, so wearing it feels like carrying a piece of them that couldn’t belong to anyone else.

How to Photograph Handwriting for the Best Engraving

Getting a good photo of the handwriting itself changes how the finished engraving turns out, and it’s worth taking a moment to get it right before you send it over.

• Find good, even lighting: Natural daylight near a window or outside works better than artificial light which can cast shadows or give the paper a yellow tint.
• Keep the card or paper flat: Laying it on a flat surface rather than holding it up stops any curve or crease from distorting the shape of the handwriting.
• Get in close: Filling the frame with just the words you’d like engraved gives us the most detail to work with, though it can sometimes help to take the photo from a little further back for a crisper image and crop in afterwards rather than losing focus by getting too close.
• Check the focus: Taking a moment to make sure the photo is sharp before you send it over matters, since blurry handwriting is difficult to recreate accurately.
• Watch for glare and shadows: Shiny ink or glossy card can easily catch the light, and angling the camera helps keep both glare and your own shadow off the writing

How to Prepare a Photo for Engraving

Photo engraving works a little differently to handwriting, since it’s translating an entire image rather than a line of text, so the photo you start with matters even more.

• Choose a clear, high-quality photo: A sharp, well-focused image gives us far more detail to work with than something blurry or heavily filtered.
• Go for good contrast: Photos with a clear difference between light and dark areas usually engrave more clearly, since the process relies on translating those tones rather than colour.
• Think about how many people are in the shot: Group photos are absolutely fine, but it’s worth keeping the size of your chosen design in mind, since a group of ten people won’t translate well onto a small charm or pendant the way a photo of one or two people will.
• Avoid heavy shadows or backlighting: Photos taken with the sun or a bright light directly behind the subject often lose detail once engraved, while front-on, evenly lit shots hold up much better.

If you’re ever unsure whether your photo will work well, feel free to get in touch before ordering, since we’re always happy to take a look and advise.

How to Get the Perfect Fingerprint or Paw Print

Unlike handwriting or a photo, fingerprints and paw prints start with something you create yourself using an ink-less print kit or something similar, which you’ll always need to take a little extra care with.

• Use an ink-less print kit: These give the cleanest, most detailed prints without the smudging or bleeding ink can cause. We’ve got full guides on using ours for fingerprints and paw prints if you’d like a closer look.
• Press firmly but gently: Too light a touch won’t pick up enough detail, while pressing too hard can flatten and blur the ridges so you’ll want to aim for one firm, even press rather than dragging the finger or paw across the surface.
• Keep the surface flat and steady: A hard, flat surface works best for taking the print itself, since anything soft or uneven can distort the shape before it’s even been photographed.
• Get help with paw prints if you need it: Pets rarely stay still on command, so it often works best with two people, one to hold the paw gently in place and another to press the pad down.
• Photograph the print in good light: The same principles from earlier still apply, since a clear, well-lit, close-up photo with nothing else in frame gives us the most detail to work from.

How Many Words Fit on Each Item?

The size of the personalised keepsake you have in mind is going to affect how many words of handwriting you can feature on it, without you losing any of the detail that makes it special. Use the guide below to get an idea before you choose your message or the memorial jewellery you order:

Heart Charms & Pendants

Heart charms come in three sizes, each fitting a different number of words depending on how long they are.

• 25mm Heart Charm: used on our sterling silver necklaces, this size fits three to five words per side depending on length
• 19mm Heart Charm: used on our bracelets and gold necklaces, this size fits three to four words per side depending on length
• 16mm Heart Charm: used across a number of our necklace and bracelet styles, this size fits one to three words per side depending on length

Charm Bracelet Compatible Charms

If you’re adding a personalised compatible charm to a bracelet, these three shapes and their word counts are worth knowing.

• 16mm Heart Charm: fits around three to four words per side depending on length
• 15mm Circle Charm: fits around two to three words per side depending on length
• 14mm Star Charm: fits one word per side depending on length

What If My Message Is Longer?

If your message runs longer than these word counts allow, engraving both sides of your handwriting charm or pendant is a wonderful way to fit more in without losing clarity, and it comes with a nice option of its own. Having words on both sides means you get to choose what faces outward for the world to see and what stays turned inward against your skin, and you can flip it round on different days depending on which words you want closer to you.

For longer messages still, our handwriting keyrings offer more space as do our handwriting trinket boxes and handwriting wallet cards, each letting you display and carry longer sentences and messages in other ways.

Conclusion: How to Get the Perfect Jewellery Engraving

Getting the perfect jewellery engraving starts with the photo or print you send us, since one taken in good light and kept in focus gives us the best chance of recreating it exactly as it was. Taking a little extra care at this stage, along with checking how many words will fit on your chosen piece, helps turn a good engraving into a perfect one.

And if you’re ever unsure about anything, from the photo you’re sending to how much space you have to work with, get in touch before you order and we’ll happily help you get it right. And whenever you’re ready, our engraved jewellery collections are here to explore, so you can find a piece that feels exactly right for your memory.