Topic awaiting preservation: making decals? (Page 1 of 1)

Oh great one, who knows all. Take pity on this poor unknowing soul. Help him so he may walk in your shadow, in your likeness. Would like some help on making custom designed decals. Have no idea which end is up. Have Photo 6 and Unlead SE. I know this is preschool for you. But could use some help. Thanking you in advance. Forest Grump

first and foremost, welcome to the asylum. a nurse should be by shortly with your first batch of pills and to adjust the straight jacket.

well now, forest, forest gump. do you have anything in particular we can help you with? the wiser inmates tend to be more helpful when you give them something to work with. when you say decals, do you mean like stickers to be put on auto glass, becuase that's what I think when I see "decals." if you have an example or something that you've started, can you show us? with a bit more info, I'm sure someone here will be more than happy to help .




...Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most (ozzy osbourne)

Printing and "cutting" of decals sure does touch on many different techniques and depending on the type of product you want to produce can require quite an expensive setup of hardware.
I can only advise you drawing from my experience in the sign biz, where typically to print and cut a decal or any other form of vinyl graphic involves creating a image in both raster and vector format.
The raster part being the print end and the vector part being the edge that is cut on the vinyl.
Of course you can just cut 100% vector image also, Lettering or image etc. in vinyl.

Usually software such as SignLab, FlexiSign Pro, and even Illustrator and Corel will be used and of couse PS.
A photo for example can be tweeked in PS but then you still require the cut line which if I remember is something like .001 in line weight which goes around the image you want to cut out from the vinyl.
To do this you need to import the image into a vector program and either hand draw the cut line or or just make a box or oval etc around the image. save as eps. or file type of sign prog.

From there you need to send the image to a suitable cut and print machine like a Gerber Edge, Roland CamJet or other suitable print and cut device, or just bring the file to a commercial printer/ signshop and have them run it. Setups to print can be 4 color, spot, etc.

So talk to a local Sign shop and take it from there, unless you already have this expensive equipment, which typically can start at $10,000. for a 24" wide thermal print and cut setup.

cheers,
kromaz