I want to be able to print my own custom decals for various projects. I have a Cannon Inkjet which does pretty fair, high quality printing. My problem is, how do I make white lettering if I want to use transparent backing so I can include graphics into the decal. I tried to do this on a recent decal project, using a light gray instead of white, but the gray would not show up against the dark color paint background. I ended up using black for the lettering because everything else seemed to fade into the background paint. I’m using Testors decal paper.
Also, anyone use Pledge floor polish to reduce silvering? Saw this in Fine Scale Modeler.
White is tough to print on a home printer. The now no longer available Alps printers did this, which was one reason modelers liked them. There is some special deacl paper made for making white decals IIRC. Anyone remember the product’s name?
After using Testor’s clear paper before successfully a couple of times, I was unable to get a satisfactory one for a reddish brick colored building unless I went with black & (red/maroon) brick color for lettering and background (either way). Other colors like gray, yellow or gold that I wanted to use were not opaque enough.
So I’m going to (maybe) try the Testor’s white paper and (definitely) the Evan Designs paper (that Hornblower has recommended before). Here’s a link to the latter, which is much cheaper than the Testors:
As Paul stated, I really like the Evans Design decal paper for several reasons. First, this paper is designed for inkjet printers and has a special coating which absorbs and locks in the printer ink negating the need for a clear sealer. Since the Evans Design decal paper comes as a white background decal paper, it is easy to design and print white or light color lettering decals including multicolor logos.
If your decal background must match the paint on the model, you will need to employ a little trial and error process to find the right background color. I do this by first creating small color swatches along the top edge of my decal design page. I try to eyeball the correct color by matching the model to the computer screen then assign that color to the center color swatch. I then assign incrementally darker shades of the initial color to each successive swatch to the left of center, then incrementally lighter shades of the initial color to each successive swatch to the right of center. Print the color swatches on the actual decal paper as regular bond paper will take the colored ink differently than the decal paper. Let the swatches dry at least 30 minutes, then compare them to the model. Select the color swatch closest to the model color (or try again if no swatches match), name and save the color for future decals (such as, “Accurail ATSF Oxide”). This will allow you to make decals for other similar brand/roadname models with the same color.
Once you have your background color selected, design the rest of your decals. I like to make my decals on oversized rectangles of the background color. This allows me to trim the decal background to fit the dimensions of a particular panel, rivet lines or braces which helps hide the decal edges and any remaining color mismatch. White or light color lettering is done by assigning the color white (or other light color) to the text, typing in the desired text, then pl
All inkjet printers assume that you are printing onto a white surface. To print gray, it just sprays some black ink in a sparse enough pattern that your eye perceives it as gray. The printer never actually prints gray ink, just black. So if you print onto transparent decal film, all it’s doing is printing some black ink onto it.
I have a Canon Pixma MG2660 ink jet printer that uses 6 ink cartridges, one of which is a number 226 GRAY ink, so not all ink jet printers are the same.
For general graphics, I paint a white background on the model and then apply the decal over it. This corrects the color balance back to what the printer expects - printing on a white piece of paper.
I haven’t had such good luck with white lettering on a dark background. For that, I think you are better off buying a sheet of white decals and just applying them.
