decal

[jimlar19]

     I am trying to make my own decals and when i remove them from the backing paper they are barely visible, this is a Rio Grand orange decal that i am putting on a black engine, i have followed the paper manufactures instructions, i am using a ink jet printer (setting premium photo paper / best print quality )
they look great before i take them off the backing paper.

thanks

jim

[Ed Kapuscinski]

What you're seeing is the limitation of ink jet printers.

They're designed to print whatever they're printing on a white background.

Think about it this way, what would happen if you used black paper in the printer?

In order to get light colored decals on dark items, you have to get "creative". One possible approach would be using white decal film, with the orange lettering printed with a black background.

[Sokramiketes]

Inkjet ink is transparent, it's meant to go on white paper, letting the white show through to make the orange bright.  Once you slide it off the backing paper, you just have the transparent orange which isn't going to show up on a black engine.  This is not a good application for home made decals.

Only possible way out would be to paint the engine white, print the orange lettering with black filled in around it, and apply to the locomotive.

Or do the same printed black background surrounding the orange lettering on white decal paper, which is also available.

[Sokramiketes]

Interrupted with a phone call and Ed beat me.   

[jimlar19]

guess i will have to get creative, thanks for your help

jim

[tom mann]

Jim,

You just discovered one of the most disappointing aspects of the hobby!  Fortunately, Rio Grande is well-represented by Micro Scale.  As a rule of thumb, if you can buy the decal set, do so and only resort to custom decals for rare schemes.  You can also send your artwork in to someone who has an Alps or someone who can silkscreen.

[ednadolski]

You can also send your artwork in to someone who has an Alps

Any recommendations?

Also -- what is a good brand of decal paper that won't clog the print heads an inkjet printer?  That happened to me once (Testor's paper IIRC) and I had to replace the whole dang printer.  (FWIW, I now have a Canon inkjet)

Thx,
Ed

[tom mann]

You can also send your artwork in to someone who has an Alps

Any recommendations?

Also -- what is a good brand of decal paper that won't clog the print heads an inkjet printer?  That happened to me once (Testor's paper IIRC) and I had to replace the whole dang printer.  (FWIW, I now have a Canon inkjet)

Thx,
Ed

www.helveticarr.com for alps printing.  Or Jim at highball decals.

I use the paper from www.decalpaper.com.