Making Decals: need a program

greghile

 

 

seasick

I have decal paper but the MS paint in windows doesn't work well enough for me. For anyone who makes their own what computer program do you use to generate you images?

 

 

 

I use Adobe Illustrator. Especially if you are resizing a graphic image, a vector-based program like Illustrator or Corel Draw will give you the best results. However, not everything you would want for a decal is a vector-based illustration but an image like a photograph. In that case, something like Photoshop or the raster-image processing component of Corel Draw will do the trick better than MS Paint (which, as I understand it, is going away anyway). The key here is to make the image as close to the final output as possible. With vector-based graphics, it doesn't really matter.

 

Correct.

seasick

I have decal paper but the MS paint in windows doesn't work well enough for me. For anyone who makes their own what computer program do you use to generate you images?

I use Adobe Illustrator. Especially if you are resizing a graphic image, a vector-based program like Illustrator or Corel Draw will give you the best results. However, not everything you would want for a decal is a vector-based illustration but an image like a photograph. In that case, something like Photoshop or the raster-image processing component of Corel Draw will do the trick better than MS Paint (which, as I understand it, is going away anyway). The key here is to make the image as close to the final output as possible. With vector-based graphics, it doesn't really matter.

I also use Corel Photo Paint, but do have Core Draw (as mentioned above, a complicated vector program).  I think the Paint program is better suited for manipulating images, while Draw is for graphics like lettering and solid coloured graphics?

regards,

Jack

I use Corel's Paint Shop Pro, which is very similar to Photoshop, but much cheaper.  I have also used Adobe Photoshop Elements, also much cheaper than Photoshop, but not as many bells and whistles as PSP or PS.

I also have TurboCAD that I occasionally use for decals.

For the cheapest, there is a shareware program called GIMP.  It is not quite as easy to use as the others, but it is quite powerful, and certainly cheap enough.

You need a vector based drawing package.

Adobe Illustrator is superior to CorelDraw in every aspect (25 years working in the creative sector allows me to make that claim), but has a steep learning curve. CorelDraw will do the job, but free alternatives are available.

CorelDRAW! 9.0