Hi all
is there any software that u can get to create signs and billboards[%-)] as my paintshop skills r nada.
yours
Gav
I do a search online for roadsigns\advertising or billboard signs…then ‘‘borrow’’ them and use a print program to resize them for HO or N scale. Looks pretty good if you have a good printer.
Thanks Jon168
I dont know about a good printer but the 1 in work seems ok so how would I go about this ?I
know what the borrow is but how do I resize them?. what print prog. do i use. also bad with computers[V]
Gav
Get a copy of irfanview,
it’s free and very useful for an image manipulation.
I use if for all my photos and for resizing images I download from the net. Depending on what era you model you can try searching for billboard or old tin lids or just search the various manufacturers that advertise. Google has an image search that works well. I searched for Coke, pepsi various gas brands, soap powders, cookies, take your pick what you want.
good luck
Download from here: http://www.irfanview.com/ Go to the advanced tab and yuo will find find the options for resizing. This is an excellent program for viewing and doing basic editing of photos, play with it for a while.
If you look in a recent MR there’s a compamy that advertises CD-Roms (to load into your computer) with collections of signs, billboards etc.
After I’ve downloaded an image, I use Microsoft Word. Open a blank document, then use Insert-Image-From File to bring it in. After that, you can click on the image and re-size it using the little black squares in the corners.
Google is great for finding sign images you want.
Here’s a link someone just posted. There’s a logo maker in there that you can make signs with. Bunch of other useful stuff too!
http://www.grsites.com/
What do you folks do to place a sign in a certain place on the sheet of paper rather than having them print in the middle of the sheet and waste paper? Like if I want to put 10 signs on a sheet and print them all out in one shot. (thinking towards making decals)
I’m with Mr. Beasley. I just use MS Word for my signs. There’s a lot of things you can do with it, plus I’m familier with it.
That’s one of the things I like about using MS Word for this. First, I place all the stuff I want at the top of the page, one image at a time. Then I shift the top margin up so the images are as close to the top as I can get them. I also open up the left and right margins so I can get more stuff on each line. Always print a copy on paper first, because MS Word can sometimes open up the margins wider than the printer will handle.
After I print some decals at the top of the sheet, I use a paper cutter to get a nice, clean cut line below them, leaving a partial sheet of blank decal paper. With a clean edge, I can feed the paper back in again and print another row of decals at a later time.
Blair Line makes some excellent signs from billboards to street signs and road signs. Microscale has some decals of signs that could be used on the side of a building. JL Innovative Design has signs too so the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
I found this 1946 map of the Thurmond area on the internet
I used MS word and reduced it 400% then printed it
I couldn’t believe it was still readable
It will be a wall map in my engine house office
It’s about the size of a postage stamp
I use an old version of Printmaster, I import [copy] the image from a website and then use the tools in the program to resize, it also allows you to drag an image anywhere you want it on the page and copy\paste, change it, [like changing the numbers on a speed limit sign] and change colors. I put ‘‘roadsigns’’ in as a search and found some companies that manufacture signs and used their online catalog to ‘‘borrow’’ sign shapes, then added my own text. It’s not as complicated as it sounds and I’m sure the new prog. out there will give you much more tools to work with.
If you mean commercial signs, go to this E-Bay link and search for the type of sign you need. Another search would be ‘enamel metal sign’
When you find something of interest, click on the item link, click on ‘View larger picture’. On a PC, Right click on the picture and select ‘Save picture as’. (I am not sure about Mac, there should be a similar procedure to download). Rename the file to something that means something to you and save it. If you have Photoshop Elements, you can improve defects in the sign like rust spots, dark photos, and photos that are not true and square.
I like to go to ebay under collectable-paper-postcards and copy-n-paste insides of buldings. Paste image to a desktop that you can resize to your scale. Then you can print your image. I also do this with signs, background buildings, machinery, people ect!
The back wall of my roundhouse has centerfolds from 1967 on the inside, right above the workbench. Same technique. Not Politically Correct, of course, but definitely prototypical for that era.
Mr B - post a picture
PLEASE!!!
[:D]
Well, OK, Lou, you asked for it:
That’s Dee Dee Lind, Miss August, 1967, in the right engine stall, just to the left of the window. Sorry, but in this shot, the others are obscured by the supports.
Hope this picture doesn’t get me in trouble…[:-^]
Pretty cool Mr B
Guess i’ll have to look around for some Betty Page Photos
since i model 40s-50s
Mr B- Where in the world do you find pictures like that to download and shrink to fit?? I think that is very prototypical. i would love to have a few in a hot rod garage that is going up in my small town.
I just Google (images) for “Playmates” or “Centerfolds.” There are companies out there which specialize in old issues of Playboy, Hot Rod and other male-oriented magazines. They want to sell you the full-sized pictures, but they’ve got thumbs on their web sites for you to look at. I just grab the thumbs and size them accordingly. There’s also a motorcycle poster above that workbench that I got in the same way.
I pick up most of my layout’s advertising that way. You can find old ads for circuses, Campbell’s Soup, Coppertone suntan oil and Moxie. My movie theater has posters from old films, all found on the web. The PC Police would never approve of the old Coppertone ad with the dog pulling the swimsuit off the little girl to reveal a tan line, but it’s a sign everyone who was around in the '60s will remember. It sets the era of my railroad much better than the trains themselves.