I have some questions about making your own Decals

[Master Commander Ajax]

So I recently started designing some Decal sheets. I’ve already sent the first of my designs off to ScumB4g Kustoms to have them printed professionally. I would, however, really like to print my own. As I understand it a laser printer is superior to an inkjet printer when it comes to Decals and I assume GW use them for their Decal sheets. I have a couple of questions;

 

1. What laser Printer would be a good printer for DIY Decal printing? What features should I look out for?

 

2. How do GW and other Decal manufacturers like The Mighty Brush make ‘pre-cut’ Decals where the film is shaped around each individual Decal? 

 

3. Can someone recommend an app for designing Decals? Ive been using a free trial of Adobe illustrator on an iPad Pro so far but cannot afford the subscription price.

[Lysimachus]

I made these:

 

 

to go on these:

 

 

For creating the image, ideally you want a png file that you can import into a vector design app. (I used Inkscape, which does the job and is free!) Once you turn the image into a vector you can scale it up or down without losing any detail. Then it's just a case of copying and pasting until you have filled the sheet.

 

They're printed on a fairly basic inkjet, nothing too fancy! The key thing is you have to get the right kind of paper (inkjet or laserjet) but otherwise it seems to come out pretty neatly? You also have to choose whether you print on white or clear paper. Dark colours are OK on clear, but light (or white, obvs) need to be on white. (As mine are black going onto a red pad, clear paper was fine)

 

After printing, it needs to dry for a while, then it needs a coat of gloss spray varnish to seal the decal to the paper. 24 hrs to fully dry, then they're ready to use!

 

 

Edit: I'm not sure about the precut ones, but if you have a decent craft knife it's pretty easy to cut close enough around them so that you can't see the film? Plus if you use decal fix, that also hides the film.

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Lysimachus

[Master Commander Ajax]

Thanks for your reply @Lysimachus. Your Decals look great! I did have a go at printing mine on my inkjet printer and whilst the larger ones were fine I found that the detail was somewhat lost on the smaller ones. May I ask what model of printer you used? 
 

I’ll check out Inkscape too!

[Lysimachus]

Thanks!

 

Mine is a HP Deskjet 2540, it's not a bad printer but not massively high spec either (and it's gotta be 7 or 8 years old at least )

 

I think maybe converting to a vector might make the difference? If you shrink or enlarge a regular image, obviously it gets pixelated as you scale it up or down, which maybe is what caused the loss of detail? Whereas a vector basically gets redrawn at the new size. (Or is Adobe Illustrator doing the same job, I'm not sure?) 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Lysimachus

[Master Commander Ajax]

So I designed the iconography myself drawing it out on illustrator originally meaning it was already a vector (I think? I am a bit of a techno-barbarian). The Decals from ScumB4g Kustoms arrived today and they’re much better than what I was able to come up with. I’ve included a side by side comparison below to show what I mean. The ones on the white backing were printed on my Cannon MG36000.

 

The Crenelations are fairly small in comparison with the rest of the design admittedly which is part of the issue. GW, however, are able to get away with fairly intricate designs like the Imperial Fist iconography.

[NovemberIX]

Can confirm Illustrator is vector based, and second that Inkscape is a great free option, it actually has a few more options than my "pro" software.

This is more general printing knowledge than specific decal knowledge, but it does look like the self printed ones are at a lower dpi (dots per inch, aka printer resolution) which could feasibly be cranked up for higher quality through settings, whether it would match the custom ones is harder to say. Which actually touches back on some of your original questions, high DPI is gonna be what you're looking for in a printer.

 

For the commercial grade stuff, I believe that's usually done via offset printing, you'd lay down a layer of clear that only just bigger than the image, the image itself, some more clear, and at some point adhesive. There are white ink printers out there, but last I checked they were pretty expensive, and you still needed to cut the decal yourself. Though with a plotter it's not actually not hard at all, just set-up intensive.

[Master Commander Ajax]

Thanks for the info @NovemberIX.

 

I’m yet to try Inkscape, but I have switched over to Vectornator since starting this thread. I wish I’d used it from the start!

 

Dpi sounds interesting. I’ll do a bit of research on that when I get home. Presumably the more expensive printers will have a higher dpi?

 

Do you know of anyone offering an offset printing service? It definitely sounds like a luxury but I might consider it depending on the price.

[Firedrake Cordova]

6 hours ago, Master Commander Ajax said:

Presumably the more expensive printers will have a higher dpi?

Most inkjet printers should be capable of ~1,200dpi, which is fine for photographic prints - it's more likely a case of going into the printer settings and picking "photo" or similar from the pre-sets.

[NovemberIX]

15 hours ago, Master Commander Ajax said:

Dpi sounds interesting. I’ll do a bit of research on that when I get home. Presumably the more expensive printers will have a higher dpi?

For pro-gear, generally, but for home printers that's not always the case, but as Firedrake Cordova said, in your case it's more than likely a setting you can just crank up.

15 hours ago, Master Commander Ajax said:

Do you know of anyone offering an offset printing service? It definitely sounds like a luxury but I might consider it depending on the price.

At the moment not specifically, but I can recommend looking for local printers, most major metro areas will have at least a few printshops, the price will also be dependent on locality, but I can say it will probably be on the high side, the prints themselves are 'cheap', it's the plates that are expensive.

[Master Commander Ajax]

Thank you all for the replies, it’s been a great help!

 

I’ve just finished up a test shoulder pad below. I had the Decals printed in a couple of different sizes which was fortunate because the ones I’d designated for shoulder pads were way too large! The one shown here is still too small but proves that the iconography works at this scale (which I was worried about).

 

[Sky Potato]

Nice, good job. How did you print the white? Most printers won't print white, they normally just leave it "unprinted"...

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks good to me  I take it you're going to print the next one about 20% larger?

[Master Commander Ajax]

On 4/7/2023 at 1:16 PM, Sky Potato said:

Nice, good job. How did you print the white? Most printers won't print white, they normally just leave it "unprinted"...

These were printed for me by Scumb4g Kustoms.

 

On 4/7/2023 at 1:38 PM, Firedrake Cordova said:

Looks good to me  I take it you're going to print the next one about 20% larger?

Thanks! And yes, something around that. The larger they are the harder it gets to have them conform to the contours of the shoulder pads so that’s something to bear in mind also.

[Codex Grey]

Looking good!

 

What is the ideal size range for shoulder pad decals?

 

@Master Commander Ajax How big is the one you used there? Would you mind sharing the sheet you sent to Scumb4g Kustoms, just to get an idea of how big each decal would be and how much space is needed on the sheet, etc.?

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Codex Grey

[Master Commander Ajax]

Hey @Codex Grey!

 

I mostly went off of the Sons of Horus and Imperial Fist decal sheet when designing mine as it was what I had to hand. The shoulder pad ones were around 6mm tall if I recall correctly but I chose to go a bit bigger (a mistake in hindsight!). 

Scumb4g Kustoms Decal sheets are 102mm by 142.5mm. This is the design I came up with…

 

 

I used Vectornator to design it which I’d highly recommend! This image is in PNG format so the the iconography appears blurry but hopefully this helps!

Edited April 15, 2023 by Master Commander Ajax