by JT Previa » Mon Sep 01, 2014 7:00 am
Ember,
Great explanation - and the finished cars look great to!
Here's a couple details from my experience:
If finding and importing graphics from online, make sure the scaled down images (logos, image text) result in 300 dpi output or your decals will be pixelated (screen resolution is often 72 dpi, about 1/4 of regular print resolution).
On my Macs I've used Pages, Pixelmator, or Gimp - all free or inexpensive.
For small decals for tiny cars like I seem to build (Sprites, Minis) group your images into an area that will print across the top of a page. Then cut off square and save the balance of the sheet. This way you can get several print runs out of one 8.5x11 sheet.
Print settings are crucial. Test some partial pages to find the right ink density - most decal papers are more like photo paper and don't absorb. Then write them down somewhere you can find them (I can't remember mine from my last set...).
Font choice is important to match a prototype or project the character you want. Dafont.com has thousands of fonts, generally for free. If you are really professioal, go to fonts.com for real quality, paid fonts.
And last is a designer's pet peeve, pay attention to font choice! First, eliminate Helvetica and variants (Arial, etc) too generic for most modern cars and too modern for anything pre-1975. Pick fonts that match your era - and remember that pre 1990 most of these were hand painted. You generally didn't get big logos on cars until the later 80s, before that it was colors, stripes and panels.
JT