I have had a couple of inquiries regarding some of my self-created decals recently- how did I get the letters so small and yet so legible, as well as some images/logos?
Not a big secret, but one that requires certain software to work with.
If you have a basic familiarity with CAD, in my particular situation- AutoCAD, you can vary the size of any font infinitely to fit the very small-sized lettering for things such as car weight/capacity data/ “adjust brakes here”/ wrought wheel notes/ return car to_____ information, etc. Just as easily, you can scale up the font (retaining clarity) as seen on my recent “Farm States chemical tank car”, “Dayton’s Box Car” and the Great Northern TOFC w/ white GN trailers" posted in the Photo Gallery.
For corporate logos and images (the Dayton’s Dept. Store logo, as an example), I have found it easiest to clean up and reinforce the pixel colors (making sure ghost pixels are not in the middle of a color area, etc) in MS Paint as a jpeg or bmp file; then I can import the image directly into a CAD file and resize it (also) as I need to without loss of clarity and proportion.
I tried doing this (images) with MS Paint alone, but as I reduced the image, it would print out very blurry as the pixels were compressed and no longer distinguishable. When I imported the same image file into a CAD drawing (basically a blank white space with my required font-based decals already to print already typed and configured), I was easily able to control the size- again, infinitely. I print on clear (and more recently, have begun to work with white as well) decal paper in an HP inkjet printer. I set my printer to either best or max dpi and premium photo paper, print the decals out on the decal paper, then wait a day for the ink to absolutely dry, then clear-coat (gloss) the printed decal sheet and let dry (again overnite) before using.
Cedarwoodron:
I have a question about your decalling, but not one related to your imaging software (I use Photoshop Elements - it produces good resolution). In the link to your images that JaBeer provided, there is an image of the Dayton Department store boxcar you mentioned. OK, so the decal film is plainly visible for the dimensional data & Minneapolis Edina St.Paul slogon decals, it happens. However, it looks as if you trimmed the square white Dayton’s logo right to the edge, no decal film visible. How did you prevent the decal from bleeding?
I have created decals, waited the appropiate drying time, coated with fixative as directed, etc, but when I trimmed right to the edge and soaked in water the colors just bleed as the water soaks in (only 10-15 seconds mind you - Micromark decals), turning the decal into a blotchy mess. I think what’s happening is if you trim to close to the ink (kind of the point of a decal, though), the water seeps into the ink under the fixative coating by capillary action or some equivalent., and water and printer ink doesn’t mix.
How did you trim that decal so nicely without bleeding? Did you recoat the trimmed decal with fixative (gloss coat) before soaking for decal placement?
On several of my models, where a logo is used, I mount the decal on gloss clear-coated (for good decal adhesion) Plastruct plain white styrene .010 sheet material and use double-sided double-stick drafting board cover tape (very thin) to attach it to the car wall (first carefully removing any molded-on surface rivets or seams first to ensure a smooth flat adhesion- done when the car is totally paint-stripped). I tend to do this more for logos where there is significant white space in the design. If a car body color is light, then I would directly apply the decal. I am not a big fan of painting a white patch on the car wall and then trying to fit the logo decal precisely, so I use this other method- works for me!
So that Dayton logo is attached to a thin square of styrene? Hmm, I was hoping you’d used white decal paper (easy enough to find) and ink-jet printed on that, added fixative etc. and somehow trimmed right to the ink without bleeding when soaking in water - so the decal edge is actually at the edge of the plastic square, and the decal ink starts a mm or so inbound of the edge, I guess.
Of course, last week, I just received a mixed order of clear AND WHITE decal paper, so there will be some variations on that concept in some of my future rebuilds. (all I do is buy cheap at the swap meets and have fun reinventing the results![:D]). Also- see my University of Minnesota “mobile soil science laboratory car” in the photo gallery- I wanted a U of Minnesota “Gopher Gold” backround on the logo and lettering portions of the car’s side wall that would stand out in combination with their other color- Maroon- so I turned to the .010 styrene, then printed the logos and lettering backrounds in a yellow gold color applied to the styrene and attached them to the all-maroon-colored car wall.
I was just about to point this out myself. AutoCAD is a vector based (all images including text are created with solid lines) software as is CorelDRAW (which I use). PhotoShop and other photo imaging softwares are raster based (they use little dots to make images) and as you reduce the font size it becomes blurred and the openings in the letters fill up with the letter color. The vector based software is much better for creating custom decal artwork.