What makes it 3D?

Surface etching versus interior engraving

Most “3D crystal” products on the market are not three-dimensional at all. They are flat images etched onto the back face of a glass block, then photographed at an angle so the depth of the block suggests depth in the picture. Put one in your hand and turn it: the image does not move, because it is only ever on one plane.

A CrystalSora is built differently. Your photograph is converted into a cloud of points in space — roughly 400,000 of them for a Medium block — and a focused laser writes each point into the interior of the crystal, a fraction of a millimetre beneath the surface. Nothing is cut, printed or bonded. The image simply exists inside the material.

Why it looks like it glows

Each engraved point is a microscopic fracture in the crystal lattice. Light entering the block scatters off those fractures and back out toward your eye. The denser the points, the brighter that region of the image reads — which is why a dark portrait can look illuminated from within once it sits on a lit base.

This also explains why the colour is fixed. The engraving has no pigment; the only colour is the colour of the light you put behind it. A warm white base gives an heirloom feel, a cool white one looks like ice, and a seven-colour base turns the same portrait into something closer to a nightclub sign.

Depth is a variable, not a setting

We control how far back into the block the point cloud is placed. Push it deeper and the subject gains separation from the front face — a portrait floats in the middle of the crystal with clear air on either side. Bring it forward and the image reads sharper but flatter.

For most orders we place the cloud two-thirds of the way back. For memorial pieces we usually bring it forward so the face stays crisp under low light. You do not have to specify any of this: your proof shows the result and you can ask for a change.

At a glance

	Surface etch	CrystalSora interior engraving
Where the image lives	On one face	Throughout the volume
Changes as you move	No	Yes — you see around the subject
Points per portrait	n/a (flat raster)	250,000 – 1,400,000
Can it wear off?	Can be scratched	No — it is inside the crystal
Fades in sunlight	Some inks do	Never
Requires a light source	Not really	Recommended for best effect

You can hand someone a photograph. You hand someone a crystal and they turn it over looking for the trick.

Where it genuinely struggles

We would rather say this than take an order we cannot deliver. Very dark photos lose detail because there are few bright points to engrave. Extreme close-ups of a single eye work beautifully; a full-body shot of a person taken from thirty metres does not. And fine text below about four millimetres tall becomes unreadable once engraved.

In those cases we will tell you before you pay, and suggest either a different photograph or a different product.