Engraving or printing? How to choose the personalisation for wooden boards

A personalised board sells for more than a blank one. The question is how you apply that personalisation: engraving or printing? We hear it often from customers just starting out with personalised products, and the answer shapes both your look and your margin.

Laser engraving: burnt in, so permanent

An engraving is the laser burning the design into the wood. Nothing is added: no ink, no foil, no coating. That is why an engraving cannot peel or fade, no matter how often the board is washed. For a product in daily use, that is the big advantage.

The limitation: an engraving is always one colour, the brown tone of burnt wood. A logo with colour gradients or a photo will not transfer one to one. Crisp lines, text and illustrations work beautifully though, and on fine-grained beech even in fine detail. How this differs per wood type is covered in our article on wood types and engraving.

Printing: colour, but on the surface

Printing (usually UV print) can do colour, which makes it attractive for decorative designs. The difference is where it sits: the ink lies on the wood instead of in it. With intensive use, cutting and washing, a print visibly wears, especially on a board that really ends up in the kitchen.

If the board will touch food, also check the ink specifications. With an engraving that question never comes up: nothing is added to the wood.

What does this mean for your margin?

With engraving you pay a one-off setup fee per design and then a price per piece. With us that is € 29 per design and € 1 to € 3.50 per engraving, depending on size. The unit price drops quickly at volume: a run of a hundred boards with the same logo costs far less per board than ten separate designs.

Factor this in: a personalised board sells for more, while the difference in cost price stays small. That difference is your margin.

How to choose

Is it a logo, name or text on a product that gets used? Choose engraving: permanent, food safe and timeless. Want a colourful, decorative design on a board that mostly hangs on a wall or sits in a window display? Then print can be an option.

If in doubt, testing beats guessing. Have a design engraved by us through the engraving service, or order a sample pack and try it yourself. Engraving in-house? On the page for engraving businesses you can read how our tiered pricing works.