Make Your Own Decals

[ruzlkampf]

[ruzlkampf]

OK, now the drawing is on my desktop. This is basic stuff, but I have to assume ya'll don't know how to do this and will explain it one time. Doesn't have to be the desktop, anywhere you can find it is OK. Left click to highlight your image icon;

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Now right click to get the drop down menu to re-open this image in Paint;

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Our image is now sized and the printer will know what to do. What I've done here is draw a ruler or scale on my image. Doesn't matter how big it is, or how it's marked....it's just a unit of measure that we want to print out and see how big it is. Think of it as our 'universal measuring stick'. Literally a stick with some marks on it that we're going to calibrate to whatever unit of measure we used to using. We're going to adjust it to match whatever ruler,stick,markings on a piece of paper, whatever it is we hold up to our model and get a 'size'. Most people use a ruler, so I'm going to do that. FIRST PROBLEM!!!! Your printer is still pissed at you for sending an un-sized image and is going to try and make life hard for you. Most default printer settings include an invisible border that the printer will try to throw around the image. Why? Normal people are trying to print photos not decals and want a pretty white border around the edges of their pictures. What happens is the image gets sized to fit within this border and gets 'scrunched' a little. Doesn't matter to the photo people, but we're trying to scale something here off our canvas size and want it ALL by gosh. Every printer menu has a box for you to click and choose borderless.....find it, embrace it, and memorize where it is. I'm going to show you why. I made this ruler 2 inches tall, but you don't know what size yours is yet cuz you haven't printed it out. I'm going to hit print without choosing 'borderless' just so ya'll can see what happens. This is a common mistake and I want you to see what happens and how it affects your image sizing.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

See how much it altered the size of my image if I don't choose 'borderless'? This would have been 2 inches long if I had. If this had been my carefully scaled image I was printing out on decal paper, it would have come out too small if I hadn't chosen borderless.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

The chances of your ruler you haphazardly drew in Paint being the size you want it are slim. You can erase the line a bit, or make it longer, or use the re-sizing trick I showed earlier in the thread. One more time for a refresher; I'm trying to get this at exactly 1 inch so I have a ruler on my Paint canvas that is calibrated to the ruler that is in my hand.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

My ruler printed out 2 inches (or would have if I had chosen borderless), and I want a 1 inch ruler. I need this 1/2 the size of what it is now, or %50.

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

[ruzlkampf]

[ruzlkampf]

[ruzlkampf]

[ruzlkampf]

My explanation was kinda confusing, because I'm trying to fit a lot into a few posts. Basically what you're trying to do is get your ruler that you print out the same as the ruler in your hand. All you need is that one piece of paper, and can keep sticking it back into your printer feed tray until you get it the size you want. When what you print out BORDERLESS matches what you're measuring with in your hand, your Paint image is 'calibrated' to your ruler.....no matter what size your monitor is and what size you're viewing it as. Make sense?

Let's have some fun now, and let me give you an example of why I did this. Let's do some pin-up nose art!!!! Whoohoo! I have an image of a ruler on my Paint screen that prints out borderless at 1 inch. Now let me take the ruler I have in my hand and go over to my ME-110 and get an idea of how big I need to make my pretty lady that will go on the side

 

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

Now I go to my Paint screen and check out my ruler that I know prints out 1 inch. I can select this ruler and move it anywhere on the page I want to size whatever I want using the 'select' tool remember? Let me make some marks (I do so love making my 'strategically placed lines') just like I would on a piece of paper to measure out 1-1/4 inches.

 

 

[ruzlkampf]

[ruzlkampf]