What would be the type editing program I would need to make decals and add backgrounds to my photos.

In my gallery you'll see a background on a couple pictures that was simply downloaded and printed from Word to resize it. There are decals and paper chevrons and beadwork done the same way.

The most common software used is Adobe Photoshop. I on the other hand have been using Paint Shop Pro for years now and still love the simplicity of it. Mastering either one will certainly produce some stunning backgrounds.

Good luck!

From what I understand PhotoShop is the standard all other programs are judged against. It's pretty expensive though. A friend of mine, who knows a LOT more about things like this, also recommends Paint Shop Pro, which is only about about $100 or less. It's the one I plan on picking up one of these days.

If I were making basic decals (Stars and crosses, lettering etc) I would go with something like AutoCad vs. Photoshop. AutoCad allows (for me and my skills) a tighter control over very precise drawings.
Will Photoshop work - sure, for my tastes it would be an autocad type program.

You can find those online as shareware cheap or free.

I found that I needed to check if the printer cartridge contained white. (I think ALPS or something like that)

I actually sell printers for a living. As I understand it only very expensive models contain white inks. From what I understand only large format models, that are really like commercial printers, upward of $20000 and up have white ink.

I've not done it but I know that you can get an inexpensive kit from Testors that has white decal paper. You print on that in the other colors you need, and the white shows through to form the white. I know there have been several people who have written about kits like this on Armorama.

It all depends on what your requirements are, Keenan.

If you want to drop a background into a digital pic of a tank or something, Photoshop is what I reccomend. Its versatility can't be beaten. You could probably get older versions of this software quite cheap I'm sure. You don't need to get the very latest.

If you just want to place a background behind your displayed model, then it doesn't matter what you use. You just need to be able to resize and print.

I wouldn't recommend Photoshop for small print such as lettering on grenades, oil drums, etc. Lettering done in Photoshop tends to pixellate at small point sizes, so unless it's a road sign or something, go for something that specialises in fonts. Good ol' Word is good enough actually if you have the fonts you need on your pc.

What I reccomend is getting an older combo-pack of Photoshop & Illustrator. One will take care of your pic requirements and the other the lettering. Over here in Germany you can get older versions of software for around ten bucks, so I'm sure it should be the same over there.

i second spooky ..
my wife was a graphic designer and i learn pretty fast from her... for small letter below 8 pixel, the output is OK but larger than that the outcome will not sharp and kinda pixalated (love the word)...
u can get the comba package as suggested by spooky or another addition is to get QuarkXpress....this is rather expensive from Adobe Photoshop...but work almost the same as combi photoshop+illustrator

my 2 cents

yeah the real photoshop is expensive but get the elements version its like 100 bucks

Hey,

Have you folks never heard of GIMP?

Ity is an open source software project that aims at becoming a true photoshop competitor and the best thing is that it is completely for free.

Check it out at http://www.gimp.org/