Marking is a process that engraves letters or a pattern onto the surface of sheet metal. During marking, it is important to set the proper working conditions for clarity of the letters. In this study a simple case for forming circular protrusions by half-piercing and embossing was initially attempted to determine the working conditions which gave good results with respect to shape accuracy. Corner-radius and flatness of circular protrusions made under several experimental conditions were measured and compared. It is shown that the precision of protrusions by half-piercing is superior to that of embossing, and the clearance between punch and die exerts a strong influence on the shape accuracy rather than the penetration percentage into the thickness of the sheet metal. The marking dies for "SNUT" letters, as an example, by applying the above results were manufactured with four different clearances. The working variables for the experiment were clearance and marking depth. For the very shallow depth of 0.1mm the letters were not clearly read. Letters marked under other conditions were easily distinguished with increasing marking depth. It was confirmed that the half-piercing technique with proper values of the working variables gives good quality for the marking of sheet metal.