decal programs

[guitarsam326]

I know this topic has been talked to death, and I have searched the forum for an answer, and i'm halfway satisfied, but not totally, I want to know what the best program is for resizing images found on the ol web that will produce the best resized image, that is the most crisp image. I have used paint and micrsoft office and the results were very grainy? I read a couple posts about decal making and I downloaded inscape but apparently you cant print the image or even copy it to another file, or maybe i'm not using it correctly. anyways, any help would be much appreciated.....oh, one more thing what are you guys using to make/draw up your own custom decals? once again thanks for your help in advance!

[chunkypeanutbutter]

I use ArtStudio on my iPad and email the results to a PC to print.

[martinfan5]

I use http://www.irfanview.com/ for all my resizing needs

[StevenGuthmiller]

I've used this website for resizing the occasional pic & it works well as far as I can tell. Check it out anyway. Steve

http://shrinkpictures.com

[Tom Geiger]

As you may have, I usually resize images for decals in Word. I find I have a lot of control in sizing, as well as the ability to print multiple images on the same page. Always make several of each decal. It gives you a margin for error since all of them won't print right, may smudge when coating them, or screw up when applying them to your model.

Your grainy issue could be a couple of things. First, it may be a problem with the original image you are using. Second, check your output quality both in Word and in your printer program. You want to print the best quality image you can, but beware that the top quality may put too much ink onto the decal stock so you'll need to play for the right setting.

[guitarsam326]

thanks a lot guys, I will check out these websites, Tom, I have used word for the same reasons you mentioned, but I never checked my printer settings, so i'll have to try that out, thanks guys!

[Roadrunner]

It seems that a lot of fellas that are really wild about creating their own decals, use CorelDRAW; expensive, but worth it if you really want to go nuts. If and when I need to resize imagery, I just use Photoshop.

[guitarsam326]

Has anyone created their own decals from scratch? what i'm trying to do is make my own company logo for my trucks. thanks again for the help fellas!

[Tom Geiger]

Has anyone created their own decals from scratch? what i'm trying to do is make my own company logo for my trucks. thanks again for the help fellas!

That's the kind of decal I make all the time. First start with a jpg of your company logo. You probably have one, or scan one from your letter head or business card. I usually work in Microsoft Word. It's easy to bring an image into Word (on a blank document) and then you can scale it down as needed. If I'm not sure what exactly will fit, I'll do several to many images, changing the scale slightly on each, like 5 pixels less on each image. Then I print it out, cut out the images and hold them up against the model. Once I decide which one is the right size, I'll print several to many at one time. The images won't always come out right, so you can pick the best ones to use. And I'm sure you wouldn't mind having extras of your company logo too!

[guitarsam326]

thanks for the info, but I didn't word my question correctly, what I meant to say was how do you create a logo from scratch? I don't have a business card or anything, im going to make up a ficticious company, thanks for the info anyways.

[Krazy Rick]

Try this, it's easy - Sumo Paint

http://www.sumopaint.com/home/

Edited January 4, 2015 by Krazy Rick