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Decal Printing - Clear Area Question

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  • Member since
    September 2008
  • From: Whitby, ON
Decal Printing - Clear Area Question
Posted by Danger on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:04 PM

Hello all, Looking for some assistance with printing my own decals. I have scanned an old set of decals and am using Adobe Photoshop Elements to clean up the image. The decal has both white and a transparent area that I need to print. I am using a Canon photo printer. I have both transparent and white decal paper, and am sure the transparent should be used.

Are there colour values I can set that would allow a clear area be created on the scan and saved? The white stripe is trapped by two other colours.

Any ideas or questions?

Thanks Adam

  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Neenah, WI
Posted by HawkeyeHobbies on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 4:52 PM

Since your printer can not print white, you're going to have to print on white paper. The only printer that can print white are Alps printers or those professional ones used by the decal printing companies.

You need to set the page up as a transparent background, otherwise the area between the decals will not be clear and free of color.

Gerald "Hawkeye" Voigt

http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/

 

 

"Its not the workbench that makes the model, it is the modeler at the workbench."

  • Member since
    September 2008
  • From: Whitby, ON
Posted by Danger on Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:35 PM

So what you are telling me is what I want to do is not possible unless I have an Alps printer.

Here is a picture of the decal. I am changing the colours to reflect the stripping on a blue car. The orange will be changed to dark blue, the red to black and the yellow to white.

White paper will make the stripe white but also all the background will be white needing to be trimed perfectly. It won't matter what the background is as the paper is white.

Is there any company that can create a decal from a jpg in less than a month? Any idea of pricing?

Thanks

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: NYC, USA
Posted by waikong on Friday, November 13, 2009 11:17 AM
You can print the decals twice, once on white, trim out area that you want - as it seems to be in the middle, you have some leeway. Then print the full decal on clear. Apply the white first, then the clear on top of the white.
  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Neenah, WI
Posted by HawkeyeHobbies on Friday, November 13, 2009 3:22 PM

You can do that but it can be tedious. No matter how you blend, mix, overlay the color in your printer cartridge, you'll never get white. Print on white paper and leave the area you want white clear (absent of color). If the paper is translucent, you might have to put down a white base color on the model where the decal rests.

You can create your artwork and send it to someone like Draw Decal, they have the ability to print one sheet or hundreds.

Gerald "Hawkeye" Voigt

http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/

 

 

"Its not the workbench that makes the model, it is the modeler at the workbench."

  • Member since
    September 2008
  • From: Whitby, ON
Posted by Danger on Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:46 AM

Thanks guys. I am going to print on both the clear and white paper. I'll open up the white area to allow bleed under the other colours.

Now I just need to figure out how to set the backgraound as transparent.

  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Southern California
Posted by ModelNerd on Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:59 PM
 Danger wrote:

Thanks guys....

Now I just need to figure out how to set the backgraound as transparent.

Set your background to 100% white. Your printer won't print anything in these areas. Your clear decal film will remain clear in these white areas.

- Mark

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