A technique for fabricating a highlight hologram based on a digital object performs point sampling on the object and represents each sampled point as a geometric patch. A set of geometric patches corresponding to sampled points from the object are fabricated into a substrate. A paraboloid patch may be used for reflective substrates while a hyperboloid may be used for transmissive substrates. To avoid specifying overlapping patches, which are impractical to fabricate, certain of the sample points may be merged. An output set of grooves is saved and may be used to specify fabrication of a highlight hologram on the physical substrate.