Thursday, November 3, 2016

Filling a Full Decal Sheet

Here's a response to an email from Glen, he asked if I printed these on an "A4":

Hi Glen,
I wasn't sure what an A4 is!
I worked in a print shop for years and didn't use that term. We just said 8 1/2" X 11". I didn't work the press area.

I do print on a full size 8 1/2" X 11" sheet, but always fill the sheet with other stuff.
See Attached - there is decals for five different projects on that single sheet.
Decal paper os only about $1.00 a sheet, but I hate to waste it.
Sometimes a model will sit and wait for another model that'll need decals. I'd just rather do all the decals at once.

TIP: One thing I've learned about home print decals. On a white background, the black print areas aren't a total opaque black. It's almost a little transparent.
Also, white background decal paper isn't a total opaque white. On a red background,
the white layer looks slightly pink.

I use Corel Draw to do my decals. I've had experience as a graphic artist and that comes into play. The learning curve on a graphics program is involved.
Anything I send out is usually as a PDF. If I remember, I try to include a 1" square box for print reference.

Chris Michielssen 
www.oddlrockets.blogspot.com 
www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com

4 comments:

  1. A4 is a paper size measuring 210mm × 297mm (around 8.27" × 11.69") -- a bit narrower and taller than US letter size. Commonly used in Europe and Asia (actually the USA is one of the few countries that doesn't use it).
    Yep... the 1" reference square (or similar size reference) is good to have. It's one level of frustration when something doesn't print the right size, but a whole different level if there's no way to know by how much you need to "tweak" the size to get it to print the correct size. The problem tends to happen with stuff that's been scanned, then run through various programs and the original size and/or dot resolution information is lost.

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    1. Thanks Naoto,
      The paper size is probably why we didn't use the A4 designation.
      I've printed some other carded models and decals that didn't use the 1" square. It does help to have the reference.

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  2. Hey Chris, what decal paper do you use?

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    1. Hi Mark,
      I use the paper from : http://www.decalpaper.com/
      The only downside to their shipping is they use envelopes to send the paper. I've gone to my mailbox and the mailman has folded over the envelope like a magazine to fit in in the smaller box. I've emailed them and let them know but didn't hear back.

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