Create your inscription

The final step in the process is to write the inscription and choose the artwork that will finish your memorial. There are no set rules as to what you should or should not inscribe on a headstone. However, there are some guidelines that are worth adhering too.

Fonts

Inscriptions are usually rendered in a Serif font such as Times New Roman or Century Schoolbook at a letter size of around 20mm for body text and 40mm for names. Small text (less than 10mm) does not render well and in some cases depending on the stone can become illegible. Put simply, the smaller the text, the finer the grade of stone needs to be for it to stay legible.

Clipart

Nearly all clipart can be modified to suit engraving. Advanced Stone has an extensive library of religious clipart suitable for all denominations and is available to our customers. Any custom imagery would need to be converted to line art before it can be engraved into the stone. This process can be extremely time consuming and is wholly dependent on the complexity of the image.

Most memorial artwork is monochromatic and is sandblasted and gilded with gold leaf, however custom designs can be etched and hand coloured to suit the clients needs.

Photography

Photographs can be added to a memorial in a number of ways, the most common approach is the production of a ceramic print (either colour or black and white) that is mounted with or without a frame directly onto the headstone.

Alternatively photographs can the etched directly into the face of the stone using either laser or waterjet technologies. The resulting image looks similar to a black and white photograph, but for best results this must be done on very dark and fine grained stone.

Otherwise a monochromatic version of the photograph can be produced and that can be sandblasted and gilded or painted as required.