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Making Custom Decals

Image Registration
The register of the markings as successive passes are printed on the decals is near to perfect. I have yet to run into any problems with the register of the decals (caused by the printer). When mixing print styles (standard and V-Photo), I have found some discrepancies.

For whatever reason (I have no idea), my ALPS printer prints V-Photo Print at an ever so minimally different vertical dot pitch than standard print. This has the effect of causing my white undercoat to be progressively more and more off register with the color print as I move down the decal image from the top of the page. This pitch mismatch amounts to about one pixel row for every inch of decal image.

This means that designs at the top edge of the decal image are in perfect register while designs one inch from the top are missing each other by one pixel. Two inches down, the miss is by two pixels and so on...

I compensate for this in three ways. First, if I only have a couple full-color designs on a given decal sheet, I keep them grouped together at the top of the decal image. Second, if I have to place some full-color designs further down inside the overall decal image, I carefully reposition the white backings so they properly line up with the full-color designs. This is tricky as the white design backings really do not line up with the full-color designs if you counted the pixels in the image files. But the printer having a different dot pitch accounts for the difference in the pixel counts.

A third way I work around this issue is to print the white backings separately from the full-color designs. This way, each full-color design is actually two decals to be applied to the model, one over top of the other. I do not like using this method as it makes for thicker overall decals on the model, but if the decal sheet is all full-color markings, this may be the only way to effectively work out the register of the designs.

Conclusion
I hope this helps some people with any issues they have run into with custom decals printing. If you have any questions that you want to send me, just drop me an e-mail. I would be happy to try to help however I can.

This article was reprinted with the permission of the author, David W. Aungst.