Can you scan decals

[peteski]

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

It does take some time to get familiar with the nuances of working with vector graphics (I've been playing around with Corel Draw for probably close to 20 years) but once you get the idea, things get easier.

You might also get lucky and find some of your logos in vector format available on the Web (even though you're looking for older logos).  For example, that FedEx Ground logo I showed earlier:  I first found bunch of images of the trucks. I took the best side photo of the truck I found on the Web  then (in Corel Paint which is a bitmap editor) I corrected the perspective and cleaned up the colors.  Then I auto-traced the logo then I started manually touching up the vectors on the puppy part of it.  The reason I started doing my own is because I thought that because of strict copyright enforcement from FedEx I wouldn't be able to find a vectorized FedEx logo. But then, on a whim I did a Google search for FedEx Ground logo and I actually I found one ( http://www.seeklogo.com/fedex-home-delivery-logo-53498.html )!  So I abandoned my effort and I just used the logo I found.  That made my job relatively easy.

[Scottl]

I've used Coreldraw for years as well and have found it invaluable for this type of work.  I have pulled off some good decals (black toner only) at 1200 dpi from raster images, but most will benefit from the smoothing of vector art.  As Peteski points out, many logos are available online either at sites like his url (great site, by the way!) or from the company itself.  For instance, when making some CN decals, the company helpfully has the logos for download in different forms.

For those of you stuck in the pre-digital train era, scanning documents might be more effective than working with images from rolling stock, etc. There are also some excellent font matching sites to help you get the right lettering if you need it.   I've had some success using this site
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ with cropped images of the text I want that I have obtained from pictures and other sources.  It is not always perfect, but might be helpful.

[peteski]

As Peteski points out, many logos are available online either at sites like his url (great site, by the way!) or from the company itself.  For instance, when making some CN decals, the company helpfully has the logos for download in different forms.

I've had some success using this site
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ with cropped images of the text I want that I have obtained from pictures and other sources.  It is not always perfect, but might be helpful.

Yes, I was quite happy when I found that website full of vector logos.  Few more logo and font websites are mentioned on http://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm

Some font identification websites can also identify fonts by asking questions about how the letters look.  Also if you can't identify a font, you can ask here on the forum. Some forum members have graphic art or publishing background and they are familiar with many typefaces.  Even if the font you find is not an exact match, you can convert individual letters to curves then tweak their shape to what you need. Yes, this is time consuming but in the end it is worth the effort.