Can you scan decals

[sirenwerks]

The less-than-stellar availability of decals in N scale has me looking at other sources.  Considering HO and O have some of what I want, I am wondering if anyone's ever tried scanning larger scale decals to make their own (for personal use, of course)?

Bryan

[NYC1956]

It should be possible to do this with a scanner and an image processing program to re-size the image.
The only problem I have is getting a good scan with white on white or white on blue decal paper.
For your purpose, you should apply the desired decals to a surface of a contrasting color, then scan.

Beyond that, I can't help you with printing. I scan my decals just to have a convenient reference for where desired letters and numbers are located. I find it is often difficult to see due to lack of contrast with the background.

[rogergperkins]

Theoretically this should work to get the image and then print it on decal paper.

[central.vermont]

Something I have done before too see those blasted white letters on white decal paper is to flip the decal sheet over and then take a large tip sharpie and blacken the paper from the back. The ink will bleed through and give you a black background but not effect the decal lettering.

Jon

[Kisatchie]

...take a large tip sharpie and blacken the paper from the back. The ink will bleed through and give you a black background but not effect the decal lettering.

I tried that a couple of times, but then the decals wouldn't release from the paper unless I put it in water within a few seconds. I still have decals lying around that are essentially useless.


Hmm... maybe you should
throw them away...

[Zox]

I tried that a couple of times, but then the decals wouldn't release from the paper unless I put it in water within a few seconds. I still have decals lying around that are essentially useless.

The solvent in Sharpie pens is alcohol. Maybe alcohol would release those decals?

[LV LOU]

The solvent in Sharpie pens is alcohol. Maybe alcohol would release those decals?

Decals are basically ink,at the very least,they'll probably get blotchy.I'd bet if you let them soak for a ling time after cutting them out,they'd release..

[sirenwerks]

I didn't have any plans of printing straight from a scan; but am more interested in reproducing the graphics and being able to manipulate them through contrast control, etc. for future use.

In regards to the contrast issue for scanning, there's always the opportunity of just adhering the decals to a painted flat surface, since these are most likely going to be HO or O gauge decals I'd be working with.  Easier still, using a a black backing of black Gatorfoam or even construction paper seems to be plausible versus the Sharpie idea.

The idea came to me because I want to build a fleet of Hooker Chemical tankers and I ran across a set of Champ Hooker O scale decals on eBay. Unfortunately, I lost the bid on my commute home after getting stuck at the office late. But quality images of logos like that aren't easy to come by and I am trying to come up with short cuts to getting what I want short of starting from scratch to develop my own line art.

Considering I am still without a layout and even a workbench, I do have a scanner and computer and this is one project I can work on, besides all the research I've been doing.

Bryan

[peteski]

Bryan,
to get good quality results you should  work with vector-based graphics. That means you need to scan the images (or find photos of the real cars) then trace them to convert them to vectors. Once in vector format you can easily manipulate them in any way you want without loss of quality in the artwork.  That is not to say that you can't get by using scanned (and cleaned up) bitmap (aka: raster) images for printing, but it in the long run vectorizing the images makes things so much easier.

I use Corel Draw for my decal artwork but there are many other programs (including free ones) available. Adobe Illustrator is the most popular (but expensive).  I use older version of Corel Draw (still has more features than what I need it for) and I was able to buy it (through eBay or Amazon) for less than $40.

Here is the latest N scale decal I designed and printed (on an Alps printer).

[sirenwerks]

Peteski,

That's exactly what I had in mind.  My primary interest with this notion is to collect artwork for 60s-era billboard cars, primarily tank cars and covered hoppers, though reefers are definitely on my hit list.  Certainly using a flat decal sheet is easier than trying to find quality photos and "flattening" from the angled photos and curved surfaces of tank cars and Centerflow bodies.  And vector graphics are definitely where I was headed, though my technical capacity needs to be beefed up in that area. 

Bryan

[TiVoPrince]

Get
CorelDRAW! vesion 6 or later.  The CorelTRACE tool is incredibly useful in converting raster graphics to vector.  This is not to say that you will not have to do some of the work of your own. 

Commercial decals are definately copyrighted, although manipulation of images for your own personal use should be OK.  Getting things 'just right' is a highly rewarding, yet maddening process...

[fredmoehrle]

I was just reading the Bare Metal's web site because I have some of their decal paper at home.
They recomend putting decals on a sheet of white styrene before using a color copier.
I suppose that would work for a scanner too.

[wcfn100]

Here's a scanned white decal:



With some work, you can get this:



Any 'auto-trace' function will be pretty useless. 

You could certainly clean up the image with whatever paint type program you have, but you will always be limited in quality by the raster (little dots) based image.

Jason

[CoalPorter]

You might be able to "cop" some artwork by taking a high-res photo
of a HO or O scale freight car. I did this for some items to sell, then
realized it is real close to making decals from. 

[randgust]

I've done it a lot, actually.   My Climax decals were lifted from photos, some other sources.  I don't sell decals - particularly of ANYTHING that's got a copyright to it, but you'll see some pretty good examples of stuff for 'personal use' in my modeling.   My feeling is that if I buy another full set in another scale, the manufacturer gets a sale from me, and it only goes to me, so scanning and reprinting is fair game.   

I do all mine as .JPG's and do a lot of editing with Photoshop.  Sometimes they have to be cleaned up pixel by pixel, that's just the way it goes.    They get resized and printed either in Excel or Word, on Micromark paper.  I like Excel because it allows you to build and duplicate accross the top edge of decal paper so there is much less waste.

It's very sensitive to the colors and application.  Some work well, others don't work at all.   

I've had some success printing the background color around 'clear', underpainting it white, and applying the outline color around it.  Not spectacular, not flawless, but acceptable.   Dark colors on a light background generally work very well with practice.