Custom decals

it certainly opens up a world of possibilities. i've added home made decals to a few of my models and have had results from fail to acceptable.

good:

Bad:

I have done inkjet decals for a number of my models.  Whether they are incredible or not I'll let others comment.  However, a few words about them.  There are two kinds of decal paper available, clear and white.

The clear is used for dark designs to be applied to light colored finishes, and work fine.  The white paper is for light colored designs to be applied to dark finishes, and are problematic.  Since the whole paper is white, everything outside the printed area of your decal is left white.  You either have to cut out all decals perfectly, to avoid leaving a white edge on the decal, or set your background color to the color of the finish.  In order for that to work, your computer and printer must be color calibrated.  That is not the easiest thing in the world to do, in spite of those gadgets like the spider, to do such calibration.

So, if you want to make dark decals for a light colored car, not much problem.  To make light-colored decals for a dark car- major effort.

I will take a few shots in the days ahead and post a couple  of cars with the homemade decals.

I just learned something! Only yesterday, I tried putting a custom red decal (laser-printed on clear decal paper) on a black car door, and to my dismay, the lettering completely vanished against the black background. Question: If I took the original (with a white background) and a sheet of white decal paper to the copy store, could they print a black background along with the red lettering? Or would the original also have to have a black background before I brought it to the store? Or is there an easier way to do this?

Jim:

I can't say as to what copy centers can do, since I've only printed out decals at home. But I commonly add a dark-colored background around light-colored lettering or graphics (when printing on the required white decal paper), then trim the dark color as close as possible. One hint I'd add would be to touch up the white on the "cut" edge of the decal before you put it on the model, since it's generally much neater and way easier to do then.

Jim Barton

I just learned something! Only yesterday, I tried putting a custom red decal (laser-printed on clear decal paper) on a black car door, and to my dismay, the lettering completely vanished against the black background. Question: If I took the original (with a white background) and a sheet of white decal paper to the copy store, could they print a black background along with the red lettering? Or would the original also have to have a black background before I brought it to the store? Or is there an easier way to do this?

Laser printers have the same problem as inkjet printers (except maybe not quite as severe for some colors).  Red can be a real problem- it depends on the darkness of the red.  Both types of printers can do an okay dark red, but a bad job on a light red.  In general, with any color, printers do not do a good job printing light colors over clear paper.  They make the light colors by making a very transparent dither pattern.  To get very light shades of virtually any color, you must put it on white paper.  Then, the decal must be cut out exactly, to get rid of the white color in the unprinted portions of the design.  Now, black actually works well as a background- it is an easy color to match.  So in your art program set the background to black, then do your red lettering.  So the design you take to the copy center should have both red and black in the design to be printed.

Jim Barton

I just learned something! Only yesterday, I tried putting a custom red decal (laser-printed on clear decal paper) on a black car door, and to my dismay, the lettering completely vanished against the black background.

print on white decal paper, red text, with a black background (to hide the white). cut as close to the red as you dare.

this is how i got around putting white text onto a black surface. the only way around it on an inkjet. the next option is to get a professional decal sheet printed up.

So what is the prefered custom decal software to use?

Tx_Outlaw

So what is the prefered custom decal software to use?

I use Paint Shop Pro myself, but know others using Photoshop Elements.

Check out the "decals" forum also- there are frequently discussions on making inkjet decals there.